Treatment: Eureka Maru
by Walkazo
Summary: The pre-"Andromeda" crew of the Eureka Maru get involved with an Abyss Agent and have to destroy his deadly Magog Weapon with the help of their post-"Andromeda" future selves.
1. Just Great

**Disclaimer: I don't own _Andromeda_, _Pink Floyd_, _Dire Straits_ or any of the other Bands/songs mentioned. But I do own this story, and I've got the paperwork to prove it!**

**Author's note: A treatment is like a summary of a screenplay, so it includes some camera directions and has lots of physical descriptions, but not a lot of dialogue (although there is some).**

**Being formatted like a movie, this introductory chapter is nothing but an overview of the Andromeda Multiverse and a chase scene. So if you don't like lengthy descriptive passages you may want to skip to Chapter 2, where I've briefly summarized the key points of the chase. Also, after this chapter the story is significantly less expository.**

**On a final note, I originally wrote this story as a school project so I had to include a lot of explanations about terms etc. for my non-sci-fi-watching teacher, but the story makes up for all the trivialities.**

**So please, read, and enjoy!**

Treatment: Eureka Maru

Chapter 1: Just Great

**Act I**:

Opening Quote:

"_Long you live and high you fly  
But only if you ride the tide  
And balanced on the biggest wave  
You race towards an early grave."_ _Pink Floyd_ – Ancient Earth Rock Group  
"Breath in the Air" – 6893 CY 

The movie starts out in the tranquil Witchhead Nebula. A female narrator (who is actually Beka Valentine) tells us about how an alien Race called the Vedrans discovered a way to travel between stars in a matter of minutes, and they called it Slipstream. As the Narrator speaks we see a slip portal appear, it looks like a bunch of glowing tendrils of white light between which a small ship appears. The Narrator explains how the Vedrans traveled through six galaxies banding millions of worlds (including Earth) together in the Systems Commonwealth.

The Narrator then tells us how the Commonwealth fell 303 years ago because of how a race of genetically altered humans called the Nietzscheans betrayed the Commonwealth resulting in the destruction of both fleets at the Battle of Witchhead. The ship flies through the nebula until it encounters a mass of battling ships, which are replaced by scenes of people being attacked by vicious, furry aliens, called Magog. The Narrator explains that the Magog eat some sentient beings, and lay eggs in others. She tells us that the Magog are responsible for most of the hardships endured by the Known Worlds (the Milky Way, Andromeda, Triangulum and three other minor galaxies).

The Narrator then introduces her father Ignatius Valentine, her mother Talia Waterkirk and their friend Sid Barry. At the same time we see them, Talia has long red hair, Ignatius has short brown hair (played by Chris Kalhoon) and Sid has short, curly brown hair (played by John de Lancie). They are all gazing proudly at an unknown object situated behind our perspective. "It's remarkable, I can hardly believe we made it ourselves," gasps Sid.

"Your best work yet!" exclaims Talia, "It's amazing".

Ignatius steps foreword raises a bottle of champagne over his head and says, "It's the Eureka Maru."

-----

As he smashes the bottle on the object behind us our point-of-view circles around and we see the shiny new ship. We slowly zoom in as we hear the first guitar rifts of _Money for Nothing _by _Dire Straits_. When the people are no longer visible the title "Eureka Maru" appears. Near the end of the guitar rifts it moves towards us growing larger until we pass through the 'a' in 'Eureka' just as the actual rhythm starts. We see an above shot of the Maru as it flies above a grassy plain on the planet Calembour. We zoom in closer to the Maru and slowly circle around, seeing the ship from multiple angles.

As the first verse begins we pass through the nose cone and see Captain Rebecca Valentine, a 31-year-old redhead who is fiercely protective of her ship and crew; she is also the best human pilot in the Known Worlds (played by Lisa Ryder). She is very concentrated on piloting the Maru, around her pilot's chair we see various decorative objects including a photo of her, her parents and her older brother Rafe Valentine from 25 years ago.

As the verse ends we see Beka angle both steering handles to the right and then cut to the left of the Maru as it does a barrel role (to the right) in order to evade two police missiles. It then stabilizes and begins to outfly us, we are then passed by a couple twin-rotored helicopter-like police craft, one of them is very close to us and its flashing blue light dominates the screen. We then cut to inside the Maru's engine room (which also has a flashing light in the same spot of the screen as the police light) as the second verse begins. We see Seamus Harper rushing around the room, he is 23, short and skinny with spiky blond hair and dirt all over his face, he has a small metal disk implanted below his right ear called a Data Port, he can use it to enter Virtual Reality inside computers. He is also a genius and can fix almost any problem in the Maru's systems (played by Gordon Michael Woolvett).

When Harper pulls open a valve at the end of the verse we cut to a close up of the Maru's port engine, which becomes brighter and increases the Maru's speed so it gains more distance away from us. It then flies over the edge of a large cliff where it turns and flies downward out of sight (followed by the three police craft), as we stop on the edge of the cliff and face the huge Blague City on the horizon. After a moment we see the Maru and the police flying along the ground in the distance towards the city.

We then cut to Blague City facing the approaching ships; we are between two skyscrapers about 50 meters above ground. However we slowly move downwards and reach ground level as the Maru flies over us and we 'scan' its belly so we can see it continue its flight between the buildings. We then cut to another street facing a 3-way intersection. Suddenly the Maru flies into the intersection from the right side of the screen and is forced to perform a hard climbing turn towards us to avoid hitting the building that was fronting the road it was previously flying down. After it flies by we cut to the interior of the conference room in a large office building; we are facing a glass curtain wall, as are a couple boardroom staff. The view from the window is just the building across the street and it is peaceful until the Maru (and the police aircraft) shoot past (from right to left) only a couple meters from the building, the executives all jump back from the window in surprise. We then switch perspectives so we are close to one of the startled people, he is furious at the fact that someone's reckless driving caused him to spill his coffee all over his suit. We then wrap around so we can see down the street. In the distance the Maru is flying away from us until it turns to the right and disappears between two buildings.

The music was playing the entire time and the third verse starts as the police aircraft disappear behind the buildings following the Maru. We then cut to inside the Maru as a Magog named Reverend Behemial Far-Traveler (Rev Bem) staggers along a corridor while the ship rocks around. Although his species is usually vicious, Rev is a Wayist monk and would sooner take his own life then kill another (played by Brent Strait). During the first half of the verse Rev makes his way to the cockpit where he sits at a console to the right of the door (as seen from the front of the room). As the second half starts we go from Rev to Beka as she tries to keep the Maru flying. However when the Maru is hit with police missiles, multiple alarms sound, warning the crew that the starboard engine is going critical. We then clip to Harper in the engine room where more alarms are sounding, he is typing at a panel and looks up concerned as the verse ends.

We then clip to a view of the Maru from above and behind the ship. A large fireball shoots out of the starboard funnel and engulfs a nearby police aircraft which starts to spin out of control. We switch perspectives so we are in front and slightly below the Maru as the police craft crashes into the starboard side in front of the engines. The ship slowly tilts foreword so it is pointing towards us and moves closer, eventually we pass between the main hull and the cargo pod. We travel the length of the ship this way and when we reach the end of the engines we see that the starboard engine is smoking and not operational. The glare from the port engine dominates the screen and we clip to a side view of the Maru as it flies out into a large paved area. It starts skidding along the ground, knocking down poles and sending sparks flying. The ship slides off the ground as the pavement ends in a shear drop leading down to the Calembour Ocean. The Maru is unable to maintain its flight and slowly glides towards the water smashing various wooden docks that block its way. We clip to a stationary front view of the Maru 'booshing' into the ocean eventually floating to a stop in front of us as the music fades away.

We clip to inside the cockpit as Beka takes off her seatbelt moaning, "great". We then clip to a side view of the front half of the Maru as keels over to the port side. All we can see is the 3/4 submerged cargo pod as five police craft shoot into the screen and hover around the Maru. We then clip to the Maru's offset cockpit as Beka pulls herself up from the 'floor' using the pilot's chair. "Just great," she says as the flashing red and blue police lights outside the cockpit window light up the room.


	2. Outlaws

**Author's note: For the people who took my advise and skipped the chase scene of Chapter 1, all that happened was that the crew of the Eureka Maru (Beka, Harper and Rev) were being chased by some police cruisers across the planet Calembour and through the large Blague City. The starboard engine is damaged by police missiles and starts to go critical but Harper keeps it from exploding by venting the exploding plasma out the engine funnel. This accidentaly fries one of the pursuing police cruisers which then crashes into the Maru, creating a large hole and sending the ship crashing into the ocean where it is surrounded by the cops.**

**And now, the real story starts.**

Chapter 2: Outlaws

While we are focussing on Beka's face the background changes from the Maru to a courtroom (but Beka's facial expression remains the same), an ugly old women is the judge. She starts the court by accusing the crew of disturbing the peace, destroying public property, polluting the ocean, fleeing from the police and murdering an officer. The crew argued that they hadn't done anything illegal for a while so the police had no reason to chase them. Also, the only reason the engine went critical was because the police damaged it with their missiles. They were lucky Harper was able to vent the uncontrollable matter-antimatter reaction out the funnel, otherwise the engine would have exploded killing all the cops and the Maru Crew.

The Old Judge dismisses their attempts and starts reading old police records about the Maru and its crew. After the Judge does this she jokes that the Maru should just be retired, instead of all the trouble involved in the court. She calls the 41-year-old ship a bucket of bolts and Beka takes offence at the remark. The Judge laughs at how she was born on the Maru when it was 10 years old and how she inherited it from her father when she was only 25, "despite the fact that the ship was just a moving junk collection," growls the Judge. The Judge ridicules Beka and her dysfunctional family, describing Beka's deceased drug-addict father, her mother who left the Maru when she was only 7, and her older brother Rafe who left the Maru when he turned 18.

Leaving Beka to her anger the Judge addresses Harper. She scoffs at the idea of an uneducated Earth kid being the engineer of a cargo ship. "No wonder it's a wreck," says the Judge as Harper glowers at her. She expresses her amazement of how Beka was desperate enough to hire a 19-year-old to help maintain her ship, Harper points out the fact he was almost 20 at the time but the Judge scoffs and claims it is a miracle the Maru is still spaceworthy 3 years later.

Finally the Old Judge turns to Rev smirking at the fact that it only took a couple months for Beka to go from hiring ignorant teenagers, to recruiting Magog. She is cynical about Rev's Wayist ways and tells him that he is a killer on the inside and sooner or later his true nature will emerge. Rev holds his composure and preaches about the Divine and how it will guide him on his journey and prevent him from his inner evil. The Judge cuts him off; she tells him the Divine is not his god and will not protect him from his true god, the Spirit of the Abyss. Rev however, is adamant about his beliefs in the Divine and will not listen. "Oh well," sighs the Judge leaning back in her chair, "I warned you". She then sentences Beka and Harper to death for murder and nothing the crew says stops her. Rev requests that he be executed along side his friends. The Old Judge says that because he is a monk her government cannot kill him. As she leaves the courtroom the Old Judge tells Rev that if it were up to her, he would already be dead.

-----

We then clip to the prison; it is dimly lit and watched by security cameras instead of guards. Beka and Harper are in one of the cells discussing their escape plan with Rev (who is free). Rev will free Harper at his execution (Beka and Harper were being executed at different times) and create a distraction so Beka can get out of jail before the guards come to take her to her death. The only problem is that Beka doesn't know how to escape her cell. When she tells the others this, the person who had been sitting in the shadows at the back of the cell steps foreword and offers to help them. She introduces herself as Trance Gemini (played by Laura Bertram), she is about Harper's height, has blond hair tied up in pigtails, purple skin and a long prehensile tail. Beka is unsure about Trance but Rev is immediately inclined to accept her help. Harper is okay with Trance too (because she's cute) and since she has no other option, Beka agrees to let Trance help.

-----

We then clip to the execution hall as Harper walks in, his hands are tied behind his back and he is flanked by two guards. The executioner waits with his gun as Rev walks in, claiming it is a Harper family tradition that a close friend or relative explains the family member's history before they die. As Rev speaks of the Nietzschean Slavers and of the Magog who made Harper's childhood life miserable, he moves amongst the guards and executioner, making a point to tap each one. When he is just about done his speech, Rev walks over to Harper and slips a small controller into his hands. Rev then moves aside and the executioner prepares to fire. One of the guards shouts out "Ready! Aim!" but as he starts to say 'Fire!' Harper pushes the button on the remote and the guards and executioner are mildly electrocuted by the nano-bots Rev planted on them. The three drop to the floor unconscious and Rev unties Harper's hands. He picks up one of the guard's guns and teases Rev about how his story concerning Harper's family tradition was a bit far-fetched as they run out of the room.

We clip to the interior of a dark room only illuminated by the open door across from us. We here a 'bang' outside the room and a guard falls over in-front of the doorway in the hall. Rev and Harper step over the guard and turn on a light in the room. Harper puts his gun down on the counter and takes out a small metal rod connected to a long wire. He plugs the wire into the nearest computer and sticks the rod into his Data Port. As his mind enters Calembour Drift's Virtual Reality his body goes rigid, his head snaps back and his eyes roll back into his head (before his eyelids close).

Rev watches as Harper brings up the live security footage of Beka and Trance's cell on one of the monitors and on the other, the schematics of Calembour Drift (the space station in orbit around the planet Calembour that they are currently onboard). The plans show the docking bay the cops brought the Maru into, and all the guard stations around the drift. Harper exits VR, opens his eyes and takes the rod out of his Data Port. He reminds Rev that they need to make a distraction to lure the guards away from the prison cells so Beka and Trance can get out. "I suppose this is what this steak is for," says Rev pulling a large package out from beneath his orange Wayist cloak.

We then clip to Beka and Trance's cell; they are waiting patiently for something when a nearby monitor flashes on showing an image of Harper. He has blood all over his face (which is all that can be seen on the screen), he is babbling about a Magog attack and looking around in a panic when in the background Beka and Trance hear a Magog snarl. Suddenly Harper is yanked away from the screen by a large clawed paw and a few moments later his screaming is cut short. There is more Magog snarling and Rev's face appears on the monitor, he is growling fiercely and has a large hunk of fresh meat in his mouth. He lashes out at the camera and the screen turns to snow (static).

Outside the cell area people are screaming. Beka tells Trance to break them out but Trance wont act until Beka closes her eyes and turns around. When Beka does, Trance steps up to the metal cell bars and holds up her hands. They start to glow golden-yellow and the bars melt away. Trance then tells Beka that they can leave, Beka turns around and is dumbstruck. She asks Trance how she melted the bars, but all Trance does is smile enigmatically, shrug and skip away towards the door, her tail waving merrily behind her.

Back in the observation room Rev wipes off some of the blood from his face as Harper gets up from the floor. Around them monitors are displaying how people are panicking about the 'Magog attack'. As they run out of the room to get to the Maru, Harper jokes that if he and Rev weren't cargo runners they could be great actors.

We clip to Beka and Trance sprinting past rioting crowds. Trance asks Beka how she was going to get into the Maru's hanger bay, Beka says she was going to let Harper hack into the system to get the door open. Trance thinks for a moment and runs off in a different direction from Beka. She wonders where Trance went but continues running towards the hangars.

We then follow Trance as she runs onto an elevated platform at the edge of a large market place. She stops and scans the milling mass of panicked people around her for a guard. She spots one and sees a cardkey hanging off his belt. "Yee-hah," says Trance under her breath as she prepares to run towards the guard. Trance quickly sprints to the edge of the platform and jumps into the air; she grabs some low-hanging pipes with her hands and swings herself foreword. The guard turns around just in time to be knocked unconscious by Trance's foot. As he falls, Trance's tail loops around the keyring and pulls it into the air. Trance jumps down from the pipe and holds the cardkey up with her tail; "All right!" she cheers before running off again.

We then switch to Harper and Rev as they reach the airlock leading to the Maru's hangar bay. Harper tries to open the door by hacking into the system with his Data Port, but he is having trouble. Beka shows up hotly pursued by guards. She shoots at them with Harper's gun as he continues his attempts at penetrating the door's security systems. Trance appears around the corner as if by magic and Beka tells her about their airlock problems. "Would these help?" asks Trance, tossing the keys to Harper with her tail. He opens the door and they run into the hangar. The first thing they see is a gaping hole on the Maru's side near the engine room and large scorch marks at the end of the starboard engine.

As they board the Maru, Beka tells Trance that if she wanted, she could join the crew. Trance happily agrees. Harper goes to the engine room as the others run to the cockpit. When they turn on the Maru's systems Harper reports that the explosion caused by the police aircraft crashing into the Maru destroyed many of the starboard engine's key systems, some of which were already damaged from the overload. They would need a new engine before trying any high-speed flying. Beka is not happy about this, fortunately Harper has some good news. Since the Maru keeled over to its portside, most of the damaged areas weren't flooded with water, and since the Maru's corridors are airtight and pressurized, it didn't sink.

Beka is less then thrilled about Harper's damage report, however she doesn't get much time to think about it. They hastily fly out of the hangar (after blasting the doors open) and as they move away from the drift, police cruisers designed like Slipfighters shoot at them. Since the Maru is only using its third engine (the bottom engine), it can not outrun nor outfly the cops. Unfortunately for the police the Maru opens a slipstream portal and disappears before they catch up with it.

We pull back from where we watched the Maru enter slipstream and discover we had been watching it through a window back on Calembour Drift. We continue to back up until we see the Old Judge looking out the window. She turns around and starts talking to someone or something behind us. "The plan was a success," reports the Judge, "the Maru is on its way." We turn around and discover that she was talking into a communications device. On the screen is the Spirit of the Abyss, it looks like a humanoid figure made of glowing red light (played by Robert Saunders). The Abyss does not say a word but slowly waves its arms around.

-----

We then clip to a different star-system as the Maru exits slipstream. Onboard Beka and the others discuss their situation. The Maru is in desperate need of repairs, but in order to make those repairs Harper needs supplies. Unfortunately they don't have all the parts he requires and the only way they can obtain the money for the supplies is by getting a job. However there are more complications. Since the members of the Maru Crew are wanted criminals, the only people who will readily hire them will also be criminals. Although Beka frequently works for felons she knows that getting a gig soon will be a problem, after all, criminals don't make a habit of hiring crippled salvage ships. The only way the Maru Crew will get a job is if their employer is willing to pay for the Maru's repairs before they even begin to move the cargo, and such an employer is virtually impossible to find.

Trance suggests they go to the Sydney System, according to her there is a large smuggler outpost on one of Sydney-4's moons. Harper also knows about the smuggler outpost, it supposedly is a great spot to get ship supplies. Rev has no objections to going to the Sydney System so Beka decides that they will start their job-hunting amongst their fellow smugglers. We cut to outside the Maru as it enters slipstream and follow it as it twists and turns along the tendrils of energy. After a couple moments the Maru exits slipstream into the Sydney System and flies towards the moon of a large, orange gas planet (Sydney-4).

-----

We then clip to the interior of the smuggler outpost, it is mostly rocky caves with scaffolding and lights stung up on the walls and ceiling. Beka is talking to a group of smugglers about the Maru possibly helping them with their cargo. However when she mentions the Maru's engine problems they walk away. She returns to the rest of the crew who also have been having no luck and are now standing around cautiously (or in Trance's case, curiously) eyeing the shifty looking smugglers shuffling around the cave. Then an old man approaches them, he is about Beka's height, has shoulder length white hair and scars all over his face and hands. He introduces himself as Dr. Henry Mastiff; he asks the crew if they would be willing to transport a couple of experiments to the Septentrional System for him. He is willing to pay an enormous amount of money for their services including a preliminary payment enough to fix up the Maru before they deliver his cargo. It seems like a dream come true and Beka quickly agrees.

Dr. Mastiff leads them over to a bunch of large crates, he explains that he had been conducting various experiments over the past few years and needed a reliable, non-governmental way to transport his test results from all over the Tri-Galaxies to the Sept. System where his employers reside. Harper scans the crates and is concerned about some of the radiation levels some of them are emitting. Mastiff assures the crew that the radiation is necessary for the experiments to function and that they will not pose a threat to the Maru or its crew.

Rev inquires on the nature of Dr. Mastiff's tests, saying he will not assist the smuggling of any weapons of mass destruction. Mastiff claims that the purpose of his experiments is to discover new types of radiation and to research new medical procedures. Rev and Harper both ask to see the experiments but Mastiff won't allow them to, he says that the experiments are to be kept secret until his employers release the test results to all the Known Worlds. Mastiff then informs the Maru Crew that he has to go to the Septentrional System and inform his employers that the experiments will be arriving shortly. He tells the crew that the experiments have to arrive in the Sept. System within a week or their final payment will start to decrease, he then leaves, disappearing into the maze-like tunnels.

Trance tells Beka that she has a bad feeling about Dr. Mastiff and his employers, but Beka is so overjoyed about finally getting the 'big score' she will not listen. Beka then has Trance and Harper take some of the crates to the Maru while she and Rev guard the rest of the experiments from the smugglers. Harper and Trance obey her and walk away towards the Maru. Trance is still uneasy but Harper takes no notice as he enthusiastically muses over what he will buy with his share of the profit from this gig.

From the shadows a cloaked figure watches them, ducking around a corner when Trance looks their way. When Harper and Trance have walked by the figure pulls out a small communications device. She then lowers her hood, she is very pretty and has black hair streaked with green. Her name is Rommie (played by Lexa Doig), and she is the avatar of the Andromeda Ascendant, a war ship that has come back in time from the future. The Andromeda of the present time is currently frozen beside the event horizon of the Hephaistos Black Hole.


	3. When Times Collide

Chapter 3: When Times Collide

Rommie opens a com. channel to the Andromeda from the future and says, "you'll never believe who I just saw!" Andromeda is actually in a different star system from Rommie but her radio uses tesseract fields to allow real-time communication across interstellar distances. Tesseracts are areas where space has been warped over multiple dimensions allowing instantaneous travel through space and time.

We then clip to the bridge of the Andromeda, we can only see the three view screens at the front of the bridge. Data and schematics are being displayed on the side screens but Rommie's face is seen on the middle one. "Let me guess…" says a voice from off screen, we then wrap around and see Harper standing at one of the stations. He is 13 years older then his past self, but other than that he looks the same. "Is it Gerentex?" guesses Harper.

"No way!" says a different voice, we scroll to the right and see Beka. She is 10 years older then her past self (due to a time-travel incident, Harper lived in a place called the Seefra System 3 years longer then Beka to be explained later), has long blond hair and is wearing fancy and expensive-looking clothes (to be explained later). "I think it's Rafe," continues Beka, "how 'bout you Trance?"

We scroll right again and see Trance. She isn't purple but gold, she also has long red hair, warrior clothes and no tail (Purple Trance switched places with her golden future self a year and a half after the Maru Crew pulled Andromeda out of the black hole in order to save this universe from the horrible fate that befell her reality). "She saw us," says Gold Trance.

"That's right!" says Rommie.

"But I never brought the Maru to the Sydney System," says Beka.

"Well actually you did, you just can't remember," says Trance. She then explains that the purpose of their little expedition into the past is to stop a dangerous Magog Weapon from being given to the Magog. Trance tells Harper, Beka and Rommie that Dr. Mastiff's cargo is the weapon and that he and the Old Judge are both agents of the Abyss. Trance also says there is a reason the Abyss specifically wants the Maru Crew to deliver his experiments, but she doesn't know why. The others ask Trance how she knows all this; she tells them that she has already lived the events that are about to take place.

Harper is momentarily reassured by this fact, he says that since Trance has already gone through what's about to happen, it's going to happen that way because it's already happened. Trance points out that they are in the past and it hasn't happened yet, but Harper says that for them it has happened (even though they can't remember, courtesy of Trance) and the fact that they are now affecting the past forces history to play out the way it has for them. Beka is mildly confused by all this, she wonders if their presence in the past is changing the past. Harper reminds her that in all their other experiences with time travel, their actions in the past were actually part of history all along (the Battle of Witchhead etc.). "Except when it involved alternate universes," Trance reminds them.

"Yeah, but we're not in another universe, are we?" says Harper. Trance tells him that they may or may not be, but either way they still have to stop the Abyss.

Harper isn't too worried and instructs Rommie to sneak aboard the Maru. That way she can keep an eye out for trouble and make it easier for the Andromeda to take the weapon when the time comes. When Rommie asks when that time will be Trance tells her that they will know when it arrives. After this cryptic hint, Rommie disconnects the com. link and her face vanishes from the screen. Like Harper, Beka is optimistic about the plan (for once), she agrees with him that the past is immutable and that they will come out of the ordeal victorious.

"Even if that is the case and your past selves do make it out okay," says Trance mysteriously, "what will it cost you?"

-----

Back in the Sydney System, Rommie sneaks through some undeveloped caves towards one of the docking areas where the Maru is parked. She then walks into the large cavernous area. To her left, the Maru sits unguarded, behind it the cave narrows slightly and angles upwards towards the moon's surface. Adjoining tunnels leading to other docking 'bays' can barely be seen farther down the tunnel, all of which are sealed from the vacuum of space by weak force fields that allow ships through, but not air.

Rommie knows that Beka has the airlocks rigged so only she, Rev or Harper could open them. But since Rommie is an android, she can hack into the security system and get onboard. The only problem is that even with her android abilities, it would take Rommie time to 'cover her tracks' if she broke into the Maru and Beka and the others could return any minute. Rommie then decides to use one of the airlocks on the Maru's roof. They are out of the way so Beka probably wouldn't check them immediately, and even if she did, she wouldn't be looking for evidence of a hacker (like she would with the main airlocks). That would give Rommie enough time to undo her tampering and erase any records of them from the Maru's database.

The roof of the Maru's main hull is about 8 meters off the ground; the only way Rommie can get onto it is by climbing the scaffolding. Rommie walks up to the Maru and jumps about 3 meters in the air. She grabs the scaffolding and begins to climb. She is about halfway up when two large thugs walk in to the cave. They immediately see Rommie and open fire. Their first shots do almost no damage to the android; she then grabs her Force-Lance and returns fire. The men keep shooting as they run over to a clump of rocks across the cave from the Maru.

They are busy shooting at each other when Harper walks in carrying a large box of supplies. He stops in his tracks at the sight and shouts in alarm. Rommie looks over at him and seeing her distraction, one of the thugs fires an extra-strength shot at Rommie. It hits her in the leg she winces and looses her footing, but she is still holding onto the scaffolding with one hand. The second thug takes advantage of Rommie's momentary weakness and blasts the metal beam she is holding onto. It breaks off and Rommie falls to the ground.

Harper doesn't know she is an android and prepares to rush over to help her. First, he quickly constructs a makeshift grenade out of some of the spare parts and throws it at the thugs. It explodes in their faces and they fall down dead. Harper runs over to Rommie and sees the wiring in her leg. Beka, Rev and Trance run in carrying more supplies (Trance is carrying a plant). As they come over to Harper and Rommie, Beka notices the fresh scorch marks on the Maru's hull. "What the Hell did you do to my ship!" shouts Beka, glaring at Harper, "and who the Hell are you?" she says, looking at Rommie.

As Harper hurriedly explains about the thugs to Beka, Rommie closes her eyes and activates her tesseract-radio and sends a silent message to the Andromeda. On the bridge, a face that looks like Rommie's appears on the center screen, it is one of the 3 entities of Andromeda: the screen embodiment (Andromeda), the holographic embodiment (Holo-Rommie) and the android avatar (Rommie).

Andromeda reports that the Maru Crew has discovered Rommie. Trance tells Harper that Rommie has to remain with the Maru Crew, even if they know that she's from the future. Beka says that she wouldn't trust an android without a good reason, especially if the Maru was damaged because of her. Harper has Andromeda tell her avatar to reveal any information that will assist her in convincing Past Beka to let her accompany them on the Maru.

We clip back to Rommie and the others. Harper has just finished telling Beka what happened. She then turns to Rommie, demanding to know who she was and why she was climbing about the Maru. Rommie explains that she is from 9 years in the future (more time-travel involving the Seefra System to be explained later) and the cargo the Maru Crew has agreed to deliver is the Magog Weapon. She then tells the crew that the thugs were agents of the Abyss and that they were attempting to board the Maru and insure that the cargo is brought to the Magog. Beka is cynical at first, but believes Rommie when they discover that the thugs had turned to puddles of seething black goo (a characteristic of all deceased Abyss Agents).

Now that she has realized the risk, Beka decides to dump the cargo and leave. However Rommie cautions her not to, the Abyss has gone to a lot of trouble getting the Maru Crew to deliver its cargo, it will hunt them down and find them if they leave without the cargo. Rommie also says that she and her friends came back in time to take the weapon and destroy its creators (they didn't know this themselves until Gold Trance told them a few minutes ago). Although they could easily seize the weapon they needed the scientists to come out of hiding in order to eliminate them (thus preventing more weapons from being made). Rommie says the only reason the scientists will come out of hiding is to collect their weapon (and the Maru along with it).

Beka is appalled at the thought of being used as live bait. Rommie tells her that her ship will come to help the Maru at the first sign of trouble, she explains that she has technology allowing real-time communication between different solar systems (the tesseract radio). Beka is perplexed by Rommie's unorthodox information but agrees to let her come along with them on the Maru.

They quickly pack up and leave, deciding that it is too risky to stay and conduct repairs in the Sydney System where more Abyss Agents could attack them at any moment. However as they prep for launch, Rommie tells Beka that the Abyss can get to them wherever they go.

-----

As the Maru lifts off, spins around and flies away up the caves we see Dr. Mastiff and a bunch of guards walk in. Mastiff is calm at first, but when he finds the remains of the thugs (the goo) he becomes angry. Mastiff's muscle-bound Nietzschean Captain tells the doctor that they could easily go and get the weapon, but Mastiff is still upset. He recognizes the blast patterns on the rocks as being from a Force Lance, he also knows that the only Force Lances around are either in museums, private collections or old High Guard Ships. Dr. Mastiff walks over to where the Maru had been parked and picks up a small piece of metal (that had fallen off Rommie's leg when she got shot). He scans it and determines that it is from the future.

Dr. Mastiff then tells the Nietzschean Captain to take his ship and retrieve the Maru, its crew and its cargo. The Captain asks Mastiff why the Abyss wants the Maru Crew so badly. He explains that the only person that can stop the Abyss is Captain Dylan Hunt of the Andromeda Ascendant. He says that the Abyss knows that the Andromeda is currently frozen in time beside a black hole and that she will eventually drift away from the black hole on her own. He says that the sooner the Andromeda is eliminated, the sooner the Abyss can destroy the Known Worlds. Mastiff claims that the members of the Maru Crew are the only people skilled enough to get to the Andromeda and that they will soon pull her out of the black hole. According to Mastiff, the Abyss wants to control the Maru Crew in order to use their talents to push the Andromeda into the black hole, and destroy her forever.

The Captain then asks Dr. Mastiff why he didn't just capture the Maru Crew when they met a couple hours ago, and why he didn't just deliver the weapon himself. The doctor explains that the Maru Crew would be clever enough to escape their trap, and since they are being assisted by an android from the future they will be even harder to capture. Mastiff also explains that the Maru Crew's skills at smuggling are essential for getting the various components of the weapon across the Tri-Galaxies to the Septentrional System. The Captain points out that his ship has the Prototype Weapon onboard and that he hasn't had any trouble moving around with it. Mastiff dismisses this comment saying that the real weapon is much more dangerous than the prototype, and easier to detect. Dr. Mastiff then sends the Nietzschean Captain and his guards away before walking off to board his own ship and inform his superiors about the Maru.


	4. And it all Goes South

Chapter 4: And it all Goes South

**Act II**:

We then clip to an exterior shot of the Maru as it exits slipstream into the lifeless Rasant System. Inside Beka puts the Maru on autopilot and walks over to Rommie, who is standing next to Rev at the back of the cockpit. Beka has Rommie go and wait in the crew quarters, she then locks the door. Harper is unhappy about Beka's attitude towards Rommie and a fight breaks out. Harper thinks that Rommie is trustworthy but Beka disagrees, she reminds Harper that he says that about every pretty girl he meets, at-least until they try to kill him. Beka then chastises Harper for all the times she had to save him.

Harper points out the fact that because of his engineering skills, the Maru is still functional. Beka retaliates by blaming Harper for their engine trouble, even though the police caused the critical reaction, Beka claims that Harper's 'mucking about' with the engines made it worse. She tells him that it would have been easier to shut the engines off and land, instead of trying to save them. "You screwed up and it cost us, Big Time!" scolds Beka.

"Come on Boss, it's only happened this one time," wines Harper.

"You mean the engine going critical, yeah that's only happened once," says Beka sarcastically," but you have gotten me in trouble on many occasions. In fact, I'm willing to bet that I'm not the only one to pay for your mistakes. Come on, who else's lives have you ruined? Your friends? Your cousins? Your –"

"Parents," says Harper coldly, cutting Beka off. He then turns and walks off to the engine room, leaving Beka standing in the hallway feeling guilty about mentioning his dead family.

Inside the crew quarters, Rommie is sitting on one of the beds. Rev opens the door and walks in. He knows she heard the argument and they discuss how unusual it was. Rommie has known Harper and Beka longer then Rev (at this point in his life) and although they sometimes fight, she has never heard them fight like that. Rev thinks it is because of Rommie, he says that Beka is under a lot of stress because of the news Rommie brought from the future.

As he leaves, Rev asks Rommie about Harper's parents. He tells her about how Harper never talks about them. Rommie informs Rev about how the Nietzscheans wanted to take Harper to their slave camps when he was young. She tells Rev about how Harper's parents refused to surrender their only child, and were killed for their disobedience. Rev thinks for a moment and decides that Harper isn't really to blame for his parents' deaths, and that he would know this, unless there was something else to the story, that neither Rev, nor Rommie know about.

-----

We then clip to the outside of the Maru, it is floating peacefully in the middle of nowhere, as Harper works on its engines. Inside Harper is busy welding something when Trance walks into the engine room. She asks Harper if he will be done soon and when he tells her no, she runs out. Trance is very worried as she enters the cockpit. She asks Beka to make Harper stop making repairs so they could get out of the Rasant System. Beka asks Trance why and she says that trouble's coming.

Suddenly the Maru's sensors pick up a fleet of Magog Swarm Ships exiting slipstream. Beka orders Harper to restore power to the engines and they fly off to the nearest slipstream point. Harper has managed to get the starboard engine to work but the funnel is still shot and the engine can only spew out the fiery, raw plasma (instead of invisible plasma being shot out of the engines at light-speed). The Magog quickly overcomes the crippled ship; their Swarm Ships fly around as Beka swerves the Maru every which way to try and prevent them from latching onto the hull.

On board the crew hold on tightly as the Maru's Artificial-Gravity fields give way to the G-forces created by Beka's flying. Rommie calls the cockpit demanding to know what's going on. Beka tells her about the Magog but insists that she can handle them on her own. Rommie tries to call the Andromeda anyway but Beka stubbornly blocks the signal.

We then clip to an external view of the Maru as the starboard engine spits out a particularly large fireball. The Magog notice the malfunctioning engine and one of the Swarm Ships manages to clamp onto the side of the engine. It pulls back and then jams its nose into the engine, which promptly explodes. The Maru is sent spiraling out of control as the cargo pod vents oxygen from a hole blasted open from the explosion.

In the engine room fires burn as Harper assesses the damage. He informs Beka that the starboard engine is totally gone and the other two engines are both damaged beyond repair. Harper then shuts off main power to prevent the remaining reactors from blowing. He is then forced to run out of the engine room as one of the fires eats its way through the wall, exposing the room to the vacuum of space. With main power out, Beka can't jam Rommie's tesseract-radio and she is able to call Andromeda for help.

The Andromeda arrives quickly and is bombarded with a frantic SOS from the Maru. On the center screen of Andromeda's bridge they see Maru slowly spinning helplessly in space, it is missing engines, leaking air and has multiple Magog Swarm Ships latched to its hull like giant mosquitoes. "My poor ship," gasps Future Beka. The Andromeda hails the Maru and Past Beka and Rev are shocked by the fact that Harper is the Andromeda's Captain. They don't have much time to chat as Purple Trance runs into the Maru's cockpit, pursued by two Magog.

Past Beka shoots the Magog and Past Harper calls in from outside the engine room where he is cornered by Magog. Beka closes the cockpit door to keep the Magog out and tells Past Harper that she, Rev nor Trance can leave the cockpit without being eaten alive by Magog. Captain Harper suggests that Beka let Rommie help. Beka calls Rommie with the com. but she has already wrenched open the door to the crew-quarters and starts fighting the swarming Magog in hand-to-hand combat.

As Andromeda crosses the system to get to the Maru, a Nietzschean Ship flies out from behind Rassant's sun. On board the Nietzschean ship Dr. Mastiff's Nietzschean Captain is in command. Captain Harper threatens to destroy the Nietzscheans if they didn't leave the system, but the Captain ignores him saying the Andromeda can't stop him from doing as the Abyss commands. The Captain then flies his ship between the Andromeda and the Maru.

Future Beka decides to pick up the (past) Maru Crew with her Future Maru. Since she is the Matriarch of the Nietzscheans (to be explained later) she has been getting almost anything she wants from 'her people', including the latest and greatest technology for the Maru. As a result the Maru is faster then Andromeda but the warship is still more powerful.

Meanwhile on the Past Maru, Rommie retrieves her two Force-Lances from the bar (where the Maru Crew had been keeping them) and shoots the Magog surrounding Past Harper. The two then run up to the cockpit, shooting Magog as they go.

As Future Beka on her Maru dart past the Nietzscheans, Andromeda open-fires. But to everyone's shock, the kinetic missiles explode harmlessly on the shields. Gold Trance tells Captain Harper that the Abyss has given these particular Nietzscheans many new and powerful pieces of technology including shields and weapons. Harper acknowledges this but continues to attack, he knows that Nietzscheans love to dominate others and never pass up the opportunity to feel big and strong. So his futile attempts to penetrate their shields will hold their attention, if only so they can laugh at Andromeda's shortcomings.

Captain Harper's plan worked; the Nietzscheans pay no attention to the two little salvage ships as Future Beka approaches the Past Maru on her considerably less-scruffy, newly-painted (black and silver) Future Maru. She blasts away the Magog ships attached to the Past Maru's hull using her Point Defense Lasers (PDLs) and uses the bucky-cables to grab the ship. She then starts hauling it away from the Nietzscheans. The Nietzschean Captain eventually notices the Marus' retreat but they are to far away to catch. In the meantime, Andromeda passes the Neitzscheans and follows the Marus towards a far-off slipstream point. The Nietzschean Captain is furious that he will not be able to bring the Abyss the Maru Crew, but he refuses to let the weapon fall into the future crew's hands.

The Nietzschean Captain brings his ship to a stop and cuts his engines; he then starts charging a massive radiation-firing cannon (the Prototype Magog Weapon). He plans to shoot both Marus and reclaim the weapon once their crews are dead. Andromeda senses the power build-up and Gold Trance tells Captain Harper that it is the deadly prototype of the Magog weapon. Harper knows that if the Nietzscheans hit the two Marus then his past self, Rev and both Bekas will die, and their absence from the universe will lead to more deaths and the Abyss's eventual takeover of the Known Worlds.

Captain Harper turns the Andromeda around and flies towards the Nietzscheans as fast as the ship could fly. Future Beka demands to know what he is doing and Harper explains that he is the only entity on Andromeda that will be affected by the Magog weapon and that the Maru Crew has essential roles to play in the near future. Captain Harper tells Beka that he has already done his part and is therefore expendable, he then closes the com. link.

Gold Trance knows that Captain Harper is doing the right thing by sacrificing himself, but she is not happy about it. Andromeda has nearly reached the Nietzscheans and prepares to brake, but Captain Harper tells her to continue flying at ramming speed. Although the shields can stand up against Andromeda's weapons, they probably can't stop a giant warship flying at break-neck speeds.

On the Past Maru, Rommie, Harper and Beka have finished off the last of the Magog and everyone stands around the cockpit watching the Andromeda with their rear-view camera (Future Beka is still flying the two Marus to the nearest slip point).

Suddenly the Prototype Weapon fires and Andromeda is hit with a shimmering blue beam. Blue light floods the bridge and generates blue sparks that penetrate everything except Gold Trance, who is glowing golden-yellow. Captain Harper is surprised that he is not dead nor in any pain, but he doesn't have a lot of time to think about it as Andromeda smashes into the Nietzschean ship. The shields crumble and the Nietzschean ship explodes as Andromeda collides with its hull. When Andromeda emerges from the burning gasses her skin is charred and scraped. Her bow sports huge holes and pieces of shrapnel lie implanted in her hull as her own skin peels off in large, jagged hunks.

After witnessing this on her monitors, Future Beka turns her Maru around and flies towards Andromeda (with the Past Maru in tow) asking about the damage. Andromeda responds to Beka and tells her that her shields and many of her weapons have been damaged by the collision. Future Beka demands to talk to Captain Harper and Andromeda informs her that there was an explosion on the bridge, Harper was injured, and is unconscious on Med. Deck. Andromeda also tells Future Beka that the effects of the Magog Weapon on Captain Harper are still unknown.

Andromeda terminates the link and Past Beka hails her future self. The Maru Crew (and Rommie) were listening to the conversation and are concerned about Harper and the Magog Weapon. Future Beka says that Harper has managed to survive everything the universe has thrown at him so far, she acts confident that Harper will live through this too. Future Beka closes the com. link and her expression becomes grim as she steers the two Marus into one of the hangar bays, worrying that Captain Harper won't be able to pull through this time.


	5. Desperate Measures

Chapter 5: Desperate Measures

Onboard Andromeda the two Bekas, Purple Trance, Past Harper, Rommie and Rev walk through the corridors as Future Beka explains some of the events involving the Seefra System. She keeps it short and as simple as possible. Basically, the crew was transported to the Vedran home world Tarn Vedra, which had been cut off from the Known Worlds when the Commonwealth fell. Since then the Vedrans left Tarn Vedra and it deteriorated into what was now called the Seefra System. The crew were all tesseracted to Seefra by Trance to save them from the Magog, however Trance also sent the crew back various amounts of time when she tesseracted them.

Trance herself was in Seefra for 11 years, Harper was in Seefra for 4 years, Beka was there for about 1 1/2 years, and Andromeda (the ship) was there for just over a year. The Magog had destroyed Rommie but Harper had downloaded her fragmented core-personality before being tesseracted to Seefra. Unfortunately he wasn't able to repair her until shortly before the crew left Seefra (Rommie's body was actually made by a different android named Doyle but Harper made her work properly). Eventually the crew rejoined Seefra to the Known Worlds and they end up returning days after they were originally tesseracted out of the Known Worlds.

While Beka was in Seefra, Drago Museveni the Nietzschean Progenitor visited from the past and stole Beka's DNA to make his genetically altered children (the Nietzscheans), this makes Beka the Matriarch of the Nietzscheans. So in the future the Nietzscheans have to obey Beka (that's why she has expensive clothing and advanced technology on the Maru).

Rev inquires about himself, fearing the reason for his future self's absence was a bad one. Future Beka tells Rev that he becomes the leader of the Wayist church a couple years after the Abyss's destruction (as thanks for converting thousands of Magog, saving them from the species' extirpation from the Known Worlds at the hands of the High Guard). So many people follow Rev's teachings that he couldn't attend the mission, he always has to be there for his devoted followers.

Past Beka asks how Harper gets to be captain of Andromeda. Future Beka tells them that after the Abyss was destroyed on the Magog Worldship (20 hollow planets filled with trillions of Magog joined together and powered by a miniature sun) Andromeda's original captain, Dylan Hunt was promoted to the rank of Fleet Admiral. Since she was the Matriarch, Beka (who was Andromeda's First Officer) had to leave the High Guard and lead the Nietzscheans. Andromeda's third-in-command Telemachus Rhade also left the High Guard to defend his home planet Tarazed from rogue Nietzscheans. Also, Maura the leader of the Lambent Kith Nebula (a council of suns that determine almost everything that will happen in the universe) had been an agent of the Abyss and was killed when the Worldship was destroyed. Since Trance is the oldest of the suns she had to return to the Nebula and take Maura's place as their leader.

"What?" says Harper gaping at Trance, he and Past Beka are clearly amazed that their new purple friend is a Sun Avatar. Trance just smiles sweetly. Rev admits that he suspected that Trance was a sun, he then asks Future Beka how the Abyss was destroyed. She explains that Dylan led the Abyss on the Magog Worldship into the passageway between Seefra and the Known Worlds called the Route of Ages and had Trance block the exit with her sun. When the Worldship collided with the sun it and everything onboard were destroyed (including the Abyss).

Although they are very impressed at Dylan's plan, the past crew still wants to know why Harper is Andromeda's captain. So Future Beka tells them that since the Abyss destroyed Earth, Harper couldn't return home like he was planning to. He also couldn't go with Beka on the Maru so he decided to stay on Andromeda. Instead of getting Andromeda a new captain, Dylan promoted Harper from Andromeda's Chief Engineer, to her new captain. "So basically, he was the only member of the original crew left," says Past Beka, smirking at Harper. Future Beka nods, but tells the crew that Harper wasn't a bad captain. She tells them that Harper's first act was to promote Rommie to Andromeda's First Officer, making a point that avatars are more than extensions of their ships.

Rommie tells the group that Dylan stayed aboard the Andromeda, using her as the Commonwealth's Flagship, until just over a year before Trance got Beka, Harper, Rommie and Andromeda to go on this time-travel mission. Past Beka asks why and Rommie tells her that a more powerful ship called the Seefran Sunset (who's AI was actually Doyle) had been built and Dylan decided to make that the flagship instead of Andromeda. Future Beka comments on a rumor that Dylan had a huge argument with Harper and Rommie and left Andromeda to get away from them. Rommie reminds Future Beka that listening to rumors is a bad habit and has no further comments. Future Beka is still smirking, she knows the rumors are true.

-----

The group enters Med. Deck where Captain Harper and Gold Trance are looking at a large computer display. Future Beka, Rommie and the Maru Crew don't pay attention to the screen because their attention is focused on Captain Harper whose face is scraped and bloody with large burns running down his left arm. Rommie expresses her concerns but Captain Harper tells her the scrapes and burns aren't the problem. Future Beka playfully chastises Harper for risking his life like that, "you're lucky you didn't die," she says.

"I'm not as lucky as you think," responds Captain Harper looking back at the computer screen.

The others finally notice the medical display. It shows most of Harper's vital signs, a current diagram of his body showing his vital organs (heart, lungs, guts etc.), a model of his DNA and a radiation reading. Although Captain Harper's vitals are stable and the diagram shows no deterioration of the organs, his radiation levels are very high. Gold Trance explains that the radiation from the Magog Weapon was meant to target the DNA of individual organ systems causing those organs to shut down leaving the surrounding organs functional (for the time being).

Captain Harper sadly inform the group that his organ systems are going to start shutting off one by one over the course of about 36 hours. At first it will be the smaller systems like the endocrine system but after a day his digestive system will shut off. Then his acidic digestive juices will eat their way through the dead stomach and intestine walls and start dissolving the nearby organs, since his nervous system will still be working perfectly, Captain Harper will be in excruciating pain until his cardiovascular system fails and he dies.

Future Beka, Rommie and the Maru Crew are horrified by the news. They ask Gold Trance if there is any way to stop the radiation but she tells them there isn't. Also, she can't use any nano-bots, painkillers or any other drug to help with the pain because it will probably react with the radiation and either kill Harper faster or make the process even more painful. Rev muses that it seems all they can do is pray for Harper's soul, since his body is inevitably doomed.

Captain Harper had been looking forlornly at the floor, but when he heard Rev he looked up. He looked at the computer screen where his vital signs (specifically his brain waves) were being displayed as a bunch of oscillating lines. Captain Harper turned his head and looked at a terminal showing Andromeda's condition, amongst the multiple schematics there was a reading of Andromeda's AI. It also looked like a bunch of rapidly changing, jagged lines.

"That's it!" says Captain Harper ecstatically looking back at his brainwave display. The others wonder what Harper is talking about while he copies his brainwave display and Andromeda's AI display onto a separate display screen. He then explains that if they transfer his brainwaves into a computer before he dies then he could live on as an Artificial Intelligence. The Bekas are skeptical saying it can't be done, but Rommie and Gold Trance both think it is a great idea. Rev says that change is part of life and that souls always live on, he says that if they get all of Captain Harper's mind then his soul will come too.

Everyone accepts the idea and they make an action plan. Since Captain Harper is going to start feeling the affects of the radiation soon it is best that he stays on Med. Deck and help Rommie construct a device to download, process and store his mind. The Trances decide to study the Magog Weapon while the rest of the Maru Crew and Future Beka fix up the Past Maru. In the meantime, Andromeda will repair herself (using her drones and worker bots) as well as she can and keep watch for more Nietzscheans or Magog.

-----

We then watch the crew going about their jobs. First we see the Trances examining the Magog Weapon, however they are talking about their responsibilities. Gold Trance hands Purple Trance a bonsai tree and tells her that she will have to guide the Maru Crew and Dylan Hunt once this mission is over. Purple Trance holds the bonsai in wonder and runs off to put it in the Past Maru after promising to keep the crew safe.

Past Beka is heaving a couple dead Magog onto a floating dolly when Purple Trance runs by with the bonsai. Beka stops her and inquires about her new plant, Trance tells her it's harmless but Beka isn't sure. Future Beka walks into the corridor and tells Trance to go put the bonsai in her room. Past Beka is a little angry about her future self making the decision and Future Beka tells her about how Trance can see possible futures and determine which one comes true by pruning the bonsai. Future Beka tells her past self that if Trance doesn't like what happens she just cut off a different branch and the originally cut limb grows back immediately. "Oh, well a little greenery never hurts," jokes Past Beka as Trance happily runs out the airlock with her tail flitting through the air behind her.

Past Harper and Rev watch Trance run out of the Hangar Bay from on top of the Maru. Harper returns to welding around a hole from a Magog Swarm Ship as Rev cuts away twisted bits of metal. Behind them an engine suspended from cables is being brought into the hangar from a storeroom off to the side. Rev watches as what was left of the Maru's old starboard engine is lifted away from the attachment area and the new one takes its place. Beside it, the port engine is fixed and below it, the bottom engine is being repaired by Andromeda's worker bots.

Harper looks over and wonders how the future people knew they had to bring a spare starboard engine for the Maru if their memories were erased. Rev thinks that Trance keeps her memory which is why her future self wasn't surprised at Captain Harper's AI idea. Harper nods absentmindedly and goes back to welding, however Rev continues to talk while he works. He says that Trance probably knows how this time excursion will turn out and she would have said something if the AI plan would fail. "What is she doesn't know," snaps Harper, "what if this is a parallel dimension or a different past or whatever? And even if she does know what's going to happen, maybe she doesn't want to tell us, or maybe she can't."

Rev is hurt by Harper's harsh tone and Harper sees this, he apologizes to Rev saying he's a bit on-edge. Rev understands, "If I found out my future self was going to die, I'd be a little touchy too," he says. Rev then adds that Captain Harper may not die, Past Harper is still troubled and Rev points out that Captain Harper is optimistic about the plan, "and he does have 13 more years of experience then you," says Rev.

-----

A couple hours later on Med. Deck, Rommie and Captain Harper are talking about the similarities and differences between the future and past people as they work on the Brain-Downloading Machine (BDM). "Rev is pretty much the same," says Rommie, "Trance is, well, Trance, Beka is way more defensive then her future self and you're very-"

"Immature?" suggests Harper.

"Juvenile," finishes Rommie.

"Yeah well, being surrounded by death and destruction tends to make people grow up pretty fast," says Harper looking at the medical display. At first all the organs had been coloured blue, but now a bunch of them were red. As Harper watched the screen his kidneys both turned red and Andromeda warns Harper and Rommie that his Urinary Tract just shut down.

"Fourteen hours 'til cardiovascular failure," says Harper, "two hours left before my guts start melting." Rommie tells Harper that he should get some sleep before the pain makes it impossible. The machine is only 6 hours away from completion and everything has been designed, all Rommie has to do is put it together. Harper can feel the effects of the radiation, he is becoming too weak to help Rommie build the machine so he agrees that the best thing for him to do is sleep.

As he lies down Rommie asks him about his parents. He reminds her that she knows the story but she says she only knows the ending. Harper doesn't look like he is going to tell Rommie the rest of the story, so she points out that if the machine doesn't work someone should still know what really happened. Harper insists that the machine will work, but he decides to tell Rommie anyway.

Harper tells Rommie about how he liked to build things when he was little (which she already knew) and how his parents always wanted to escape Earth and the Nietzscheans. So when he was 6, Harper built a radar-like machine that could detect ships around Earth. Using the radar, Harper could find approaching cargo ships that may offer transportation off Earth in exchange for help moving or stealing cargo. It was an ingenious creation, however Harper didn't know that the Nietzscheans could also pick up on his radar signals.

One day the Nietzscheans heard the radar and decided to eliminate its creator, preventing them from making weapons and teaching others how to as well. Fortunately Harper's father discovered the Nietzscheans' plan to take Harper to the slave plantations.

We then see a flashback:

_Harper's father, a short, fairly skinny man with brown hair, shows up in the human refugee camp and tells little Seamus Harper and his lanky, blonde-haired mother to leave as fast as they could. They do as they were told but they hadn't gotten far when Harper's mother hears Nietzscheans approaching. She has Harper return to the camp by crawling through the garbage, she knew the Nietzscheans wouldn't expect Harper to hide amongst his relatives (the Nietzscheans would assume that he would still try to get away from the camp without his parents)._

_When Harper sneaks back to camp he sees the Nietzscheans torturing his father demanding where Harper and his mother went. Two more Nietzscheans come into camp dragging Harper's mother with them. The Nietzscheans say she won't tell them where Harper ran off. Harper's father laughs at how the Nietzscheans won't succeed in getting his entire family. As he laughs the Head Nietzschean takes out a knife and slits his throat. Harper's mother screams and struggles against the Nietzscheans as her husband slumps to the floor. The Head Nietzschean turns around shooting her in the stomach. The two Nietzscheans drop her limp body and leave. Harper stays hidden, tears streaming silently down his face._

In the present time, Rommie looks sadly at Harper. He tells her that he vowed never to tell anyone the entire story until he found someone he loved as much as he loved his parents. Before Rommie can respond Harper slips unconscious (he had been up for over two days and he hadn't eaten in hours). As she goes back to work on the BDM, Rommie looks mildly confused. Harper has told her he loves her on many occasions, but this is the first time Rommie finds herself moved by his feelings, and she doesn't really know why.


	6. Funeral for a Friend

**Author's Note: There's actually a whole conversation between the different forms of Andromeda in this chapter, just incase you were growing tired of nothing but little snippets of dialogue here and there.**

Chapter 6: Funeral for a Friend

Nearly six hours later, Past Beka is preparing to test the Past Maru's new systems. Her future self and Rev are in the cockpit and Past Harper is in the engine room. Beka starts the main generator and the Maru's previously dormant systems whir to life. "It's okay baby," coos Beka as her ship creaks and groans as a result of the new energy coursing through its conduits. The coils in the funnels of the Maru's engines slowly start glowing white, then streams of blue energy poor out of the engines. The crew is relieved, but Andromeda cuts their celebrations short. She informs them that they are going to have to download Captain Harper's brain in a couple minutes. Past Beka grudgingly shuts off the engines and the group heads to Med. Deck.

-----

They walk into Med. Deck and are shocked to find Captain Harper wide-awake and already hooked up to the Brain-Downloading Machine via a large cable plugged into his Data Port and various smaller wires sticking out of his forehead. On either side of the wires there were large bands of metal, securing Harper's head so he couldn't move it and wreck the wires' connections inside his brain. He was also strapped to the operating table by restraining cuffs on his upper-arms, thighs, wrists and ankles.

The BDM was completed and the majority of the extra pieces had been moved out of the room. The machine was almost shoulder-height but most of the top was taken up by a large screen displaying Harper's current brainwaves and the electric signals downloaded by the BDM (currently there were no downloaded signals). The diagram of Harper's internal organs showed that every organ system except his muscular, cardiovascular and nervous systems weren't working anymore (not included the minor systems making up those three main systems). Also, there was a new feature to the diagram, amidst the blue and red organs there was a large streak of yellow running along and below Harper's digestive system. This was the progression of Harper's digestive fluids as they ate their way through his flesh.

Rommie and the Trances were already on Med. Deck and Future Beka asks Captain Harper how long he had been conscious for. He tells her that the pain from the digestive juices melting his nerve endings woke him up about half an hour ago. "Just in time for Trance to drill a couple holes through my skull," explains Captain Harper. Gold Trance looks unhappily at a drill-like medical tool lying on the table beside Harper's bed; she had to operate on him without using painkillers (because of the radiation). Rev asks why Harper is so heavily restrained and Rommie explains that when Harper's brainwaves are interrupted by the BDM his muscles are going to go into convulsions.

Rommie explains that the BDM will intercept different parts of Harper's brainwaves depending on which section of wiring is engaged. Some of it will be relatively simple, like Harper's consciousness, memory and personality, which are rerouted out of his brain each time he enters Virtual Reality. The hard part is stabilizing the electric signals enough to totally separate them from the brain, when this happens, no new signals will be created but everything up to that point will be preserved inside the BDM, providing a pattern for Harper's new android brain to build upon.

Captain Harper cuts the explanation short by asking Rev not to say his characteristic invocation until they are sure the BDM has failed (if it failed). "Just in case this crazy scheme works, I wouldn't want you to waste your breath," jokes Captain Harper.

"Of course," says Rev.

"Hey," says Future Beka, "if this doesn't work you'll be sorry."

"If this doesn't work I'll be dead," says Captain Harper.

"Yeah, but your past self's not," grins Beka, Past Harper remains silent, the fact that his future self is about to die has drained Past Harper's sense of humor.

The medical display beeps as Captain Harper's olfactory nerves stop broadcasting electric signals. This is the last straw for Harper and he tells Rommie to download his brain before he looses something else. She pick up a syringe filled with a chemical that will stop Harper's heart, this will make it easier to download his consciousness until his brain begins to die of lack of oxygen. Rommie walks over to Harper and prepares to inject him with the fatal drug, but she hesitates. Rommie is still concerned, she is worried that the BDM won't work and that she will lose Harper.

Harper reminds her that he will still die if they don't do anything, but by the time the radiation shuts off his heart, he would've already lost the abilities to see, hear, smell, taste, feel and talk. Also, by then his lower torso would compose solely of self-digested liquid meat. Harper tells the group that he can feel his dead organs sitting dormant in his body and feel the digestive juices eating away his flesh as his nerves send bolts of white-hot pain through his body. Harper is in excruciating pain and he's doomed anyway, using the BDM gives him a chance to survive, and whether or not it works, at least he will be out of his misery.

Rommie nods and sticks the syringe in Captain Harper's neck. In a couple seconds the heart-rate monitor on the medical display flat-lines. The BDM automatically starts downloading Harper's consciousness through the cable connected to Harper's Data Port. Harper looks like he entered Virtual Reality except his head didn't snap back (because of the restraints). On the BDM display it showes the electric signals the machine is downloading, they match Harper's brainwaves on the medical display, which have become dangerously rapid and chaotic (a result of the downloading process).

The other wires start glowing as they intercept the signals concerning the sensory systems and motor control. This makes Harper's body jerk around as the brain sends out sporadic signals while the regular ones are downloaded. At the same time the medical display warns that every organ except Harper's brain has shut down. On the BDM display it shows that all of Harper's memories have been copied, downloaded and stored in the machine, it also alerts the crew that the motor control patterns are encoded and secure in the BDM mainframe.

Harper's consciousness etc. is almost stabilized when the brainwave display on the medical display goes blank as Harper's brain shuts off from lack of oxygen. At the same time the downloaded brainwave display freezes, it registers loss of input and warns that it didn't finish encoding all the electric signals. The crew doesn't notice at first, they are busy looking sadly at Captain Harper's limp body, fortunately his eyes are closed and the group is spared the sight of his blank, lifeless eyes.

Rommie unlatches the restraints and takes the cables out of Harper's head. She walks over to the BDM and assesses the condition of Harper's downloaded mind. The others see the warning that the download isn't complete and ask Rommie if that means that the machine failed. Rommie tells them that she's not sure, the BDM seemed to copy and download everything else perfectly. The problem appears to be that Harper's brain died before all of his consciousness was encoded.

Rommie tells them that this part of Harper's consciousness could've been what his brain was experiencing at the exact moment the BDM was downloading his mind and that everything else was already secure in the machine. She tells them that she still has to sort out the downloaded signals and erase the fragmented parts of Harper's last moments. She will also have to delete all of Harper's memories before age 3, so his memories of learning to walk and talk etc. don't interfere with Harper's ability to function as an android.

Rommie explains that she will have to design a new Virtual Reality Matrix to simulate the way the human brain works. The BDM encoded the patterns of Harper's motor controls etc. and the new VR Matrix will simulate those patterns and allow Harper to control his android body as if it were his human body. That way, Harper won't have to learn how to function as an android immediately, they will be able to save that for after they get back to the future (if they get back to the future).

It will take about an hour for the BDM to provide a design for the new VR Matrix; then it will take 2 to 3 hours for Rommie to construct it. While the BDM is sorting out Harper's mind, Rommie will modify one of the Andromeda's humanoid drones into a new body for Harper. It took Harper almost 2 days to modify a drone to make Rommie's original body (the one destroyed before the crew was transported to Seefra). Fortunately, Rommie is faster then Harper and they will be able to download his mind into the android body in about 5 hours.

In the meantime Gold Trance tells the others to get some sleep. The Maru Crew is appalled at the suggestion. "We just watched Harper die!" exclaims Past Beka, "how do you expect us to sleep with that fresh in our minds?" Gold Trance tells them that as soon as they have Captain Harper up and running they will have to continue with their plan. She tells the Maru Crew that they will need to be well-rested in order for their plan to work. The Maru Crew is unaware that there's a plan and asks Gold Trance about it. She tells them that they will find out once they've gotten some sleep.

Past Harper finally speaks, he's pretty pale and clammy but manages to keep his composure as he asks Gold Trance if what just happened to his future self is what she remembers from when she was Purple Trance, watching this for the first time. "How can it be the same?" responds Gold Trance cryptically, "my purple self is right there, and I'm not her so no-matter what happens, it will not be the same for this me as it is for that me."

"Hmm, good point," says Harper forlornly as he leaves the Med. Deck. Past Beka, Purple Trance and Rev leave as well and the four crewmates disappear down the corridor, heading for the Past Maru. Rommie goes to start work on the android body and Gold Trance tells Future Beka to get some sleep as well. Trance has to stay behind and properly store Harper's body so they can bring it back to the future where the Perseids will use it for their radiation research. Beka walks over to the door but before she leaves, Beka pauses and takes one last look at Harper.

Beka retells the story of her death experience to Trance. They had known Dylan Hunt and the Andromeda for almost four years when Beka was possessed by the Abyss during one of their missions. Trance remembers it well, they had to cool Beka's body so her heart would stop, this forced the Abyss out of Beka's mind. Beka tells Trance that she told everyone that she was fine and couldn't really remember what happened, but in reality she wasn't fine. Beka wasn't really the same after she was clinically dead for those few minutes, part of her never came back to life. "I know how you feel," says Trance, who had died many times since they joined Dylan's quest to restore the Commonwealth.

"And if this works, so will Harper," says Beka turning away from her dead friend and letting the door close behind her, she knew that no-matter how perfectly the BDM saved Harper's mind, he will never be the same.

-----

A few hours later Rommie walks into one of the machine shops. She picks up a tool she needed for the android body, but she lingers in the room looking at one of Captain Harper's unfinished projects. It was a small model of the X-1, the first Earth airplane to break the sound barrier. The holographic form of Andromeda appears in front of Rommie and tells her to get back to work. Rommie reminds her holographic counterpart that she is not only the humanoid embodiment of Andromeda, but also the First Officer, and the one giving the orders until Captain Harper is reanimated. "If you're so sure that Harper isn't gone then why are you acting so sentimental with his projects," asks Holo-Rommie.

"It's just," says Rommie, "remember when Harper first started building the life-size version of the X-1, back when we first met the Maru Crew, when all they cared about was self-gain?"

"You mean back when they were the Maru Crew that's currently on board?" says Holo-Rommie.

"Um yeah, I guess," says Rommie making a face, "well anyway, remember how we thought the crew were so incompetent?"

A terminal flashes on and Andromeda's screen embodiment joins the conversation, "they were incompetent."

"Well compared to our old crew they were, but once we got to know them we started appreciating them," says Rommie.

"Your point?" asks Holo-Rommie.

"My point is that they became close to us, you once told Harper that he was your favorite engineer," says Rommie, looking at the screen.

"Yes, the Maru Crew did become, special to us," responds Andromeda.

"Yeah, but when Harper became our captain we weren't too happy about it," says Rommie.

Holo-Rommie elaborates, "he was the best engineer in the High Guard."

"But he continued to be our engineer, during the battles he was on the bridge calling the shots, but after the fighting was over he was the one making sure the ship was fixed," says Rommie.

"Unofficially," says Andromeda.

"Whatever, the point is that Harper put us ahead of himself. Like the X-1, as Captain Harper finally had the resources to acquire everything he needed for the X-1. But he abandoned the project and decided to make this miniature," says Rommie, holding up the half-finished model, "he spends his free time fixing us, no one has ever treated us so kindly."

"Yeah, especially not Dylan," smirks Holo-Rommie.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asks Rommie.

"Well this wouldn't be the first time you have become emotionally involved with your captain," responds Holo-Rommie.

"Are you implying that I've fallen for Harper?" asks Rommie, a look of anger and mild disgust on her face.

"We've been monitoring your behavior over the past few months, it's very similar to your behavior towards Dylan 4 years ago," says Andromeda.

"And remember how that ended up," adds Holo-Rommie.

"It wasn't my fault, the Vedrans changed him, and I broke up with him once I saw that," says Rommie indignantly.

"Yes, and Harper still provided a shoulder for **you **to cry on," says Holo-Rommie.

"Exactly," says Rommie, her disgust subsiding, "he was there for me even though I broke his heart."

"I thought you were opposed to a relationship with Harper," says Andromeda.

"So did I," says Rommie leaving the machine shop. The hologram and screen forms of Andromeda look at each other.

"I'm glad we don't share our avatar's emotions," says Holo-Rommie disapprovingly.

"Yes, she acts much too, human," agrees Andromeda before the hologram and the screen both shut off.


	7. Plan B

**Author's Note: Back to minimal dialogue, but I hoped you like reading the inter-Andromeda bickering as much as I liked writing it.**

Chapter 7: Plan B.

A few hours after that, Rommie summons the crew to Med. Deck. The Maru Crew enters to find the future people already there gathered around Harper's new android body. It is already clothed in a High Guard uniform, and only has skin on its right hand, neck and head, however large pieces of metal rest on the right side of the android's face. Large cables connect these plates to the Brain-Downloading Machine. The past crew is amazed at how the android's face was identical to Captain Harper's except the metal pieces and the lack of a Data Port.

Rommie disagrees with them, she says the metal bits remind her too much of when she was first re-assembled in the Seefra System (after she was blown up by the Magog), went crazy and tried to kill the crew. The Maru Crew is a bit disturbed by the story. "Oh don't be" says Rommie, "there were complications involving Vedran technology and I was missing bits of my core personality." According to the BDM there weren't any unaccounted-for gaps in Harper's downloaded mind. Rommie warns the group that they won't know for sure if they can get Captain Harper back until they download the stored electric signals from the BDM to the android body.

That being said, Rommie prepares to upload Captain Harper's mind. She calls up real time schematics of the android on the medical display, complete with a human-style brainwave display. Everyone holds their breath as Rommie flips a switch on the BDM and begins the download. The connecting cables glow yellow as the electric signals flow into the android. On the BDM display it shows the altered motor control and sensory patterns being integrated into the android, the medical display shows the various systems switching on as they receive the programming.

The BDM finishes this and starts downloading the memories. On the medical display, the modified android VR Matrix sorts and stores the data perfectly. This is done relatively quickly and the BDM starts uploading Harper's personality etc. into the android. On the medical display, the android starts producing basic 'brainwaves', Gold Trance brings up an old record of Harper's brainwaves and compares the two sets. They don't match, Rommie says it's because the download isn't done yet, but she is obviously concerned.

Finally the BDM finishes downloading all the subconscious patterns of thought into the android. All that's left is Captain Harper's consciousness, which has been suspended inside the BDM since the moment his real brain died. Rommie engages the final stage of downloading and watches as the android's brainwaves on the medical display fluctuate worrisomely. Suddenly the signals even out into a regular pattern that matches up to Harper's brainwaves. At the same time, the android's eyes fly open.

"Harper?" says Rommie as the group cluster around the table. Rommie looks down at the android's face, "Harper, say something."

"Weird," says Captain Harper. Everyone is overjoyed that Captain Harper's mind is still alive, especially Past Harper. Future Beka asks Captain Harper how he feels and he says, "weird," (again). Rommie tells Harper that she made the VR Matrix as human as possible, he tells her that she's done a great job. "You even made my lips and tongue move automatically when I talk!" exclaims Captain Harper happily.

Harper holds up his left hand and wiggles his fingers, watching the intricate silvery-black circuitry move his digits as easily as his bones and muscles had done. Rommie mistakes Captain Harper's stares of wonder as stares of discontent. She hastily explains that she didn't want to waste time putting skin on all of Harper's body and she thought he wouldn't mind. "What? I don't mind at all!" says Harper, "I'm just happy you gave me hair!"

"Then why were you staring at your hand?" asks Rommie.

"I was just thinking about how it's not that different from my old one," says Captain Harper nodding towards his past, organic self. "I mean, we're all just machines right? Only, you and I are androids," he says to Rommie. "You guys are organics," says Captain Harper, looking at the Maru Crew and Future Beka. He then turns to the Trances, "and you're suns."

"Actually we're **a** sun," corrects Gold Trance.

Captain Harper shrugs and slides off the operating table. He takes an unsure step, but to his delight it feels the same as it used to and he strides out of Med. Deck, the others following him to the bridge. Captain Harper remarks on how almost all of his memories are crystal clear, but how all his 'baby memories' were gone. Harper's fine with that, he tells Rommie that they would probably be pretty awkward anyway.

"Speaking of lacking certain parts…" begins Captain Harper, smirking playfully at Rommie. She shoots him a dirty look, but clearly doesn't mean it. Captain Harper chuckles, "it's okay, even if you had hours to build me an android body I wasn't expecting you to make it totally anatomically correct, but you could've at least made me taller!"

-----

We clip to the bridge as the group walks in. Captain Harper steps up into the captain's station and turns to face the group, "so, what've I missed?" Future Beka tells him that both Marus are fully functional and ready for battle. Past Beka adds that her Maru's cargo pod has been switched with the explosive-filled one the crew brought back from the future, although she doesn't know why yet. Captain Harper nods and turns to the Trances, he asks them to share their discoveries concerning the Magog Weapon.

They walk up to the front of the bridge and Andromeda displays the information concerning the Magog Weapon on the center screen. Purple Trance briefly reminds the crew about the unusual patterns of radiation poisoning caused by the Prototype Weapon. Gold Trance then tells them that the radiation from the actual Magog Weapon will target the organ systems in a different order. She tells them that all the 'minor' systems will be shut off immediately, including sensory systems and motor control, however the digestive system would continue functioning with the nervous and cardiovascular systems. This makes the affected people ideal incubators for Magog larva.

Purple Trance explains that although the Prototype Weapon involved a radiation beam for its deployment, the actual weapon would use a wave-like burst of radiation. Unlike the prototype, the actual Magog Weapon could affect an entire fleet of ships in one shot (like their weapon File/D that Harper decommissions in the future). Also, Purple Trance explains that the radiation used by the Magog Weapon doesn't affect Magog. In conclusion, Gold Trance tells the group that if the weapon reaches the hands of the Magog they would be-able to defeat every obstacle in their way as their evil god, the Spirit of the Abyss takes over the Known Worlds.

"Well, we got the Magog Weapon here on Andromeda and there's no way they can get it," says Captain Harper optimistically.

"But what about Dr. Mastiff?" asks Past Beka, "he can just build another." Gold Trance tells the group that Dr. Mastiff is in the Septentrional System awaiting the arrival of the Magog Weapon. She explains that the Maru Crew will have to eliminate him and all his research assistants in their base on an asteroid in the Sept. System so they can't make another weapon.

"How the Hell are we supposed to do that?" demands Past Beka.

Captain Harper is about to explain how when his past self cuts in, "I thought you were planning to kill the mad scientists on your own, and we were just the live bait." Andromeda's screen persona appears on the left screen and explains that she is too damaged to swoop in and kill the scientists when they reveal their position, therefore the Maru Crew must protect themselves and destroy the enemy on their own.

Past Harper asks his future self what they were going to do if the Magog never attacked the Maru and Andromeda was perfectly fine. Rommie says they would have waited for the Abyss Agents to reveal the location of their base to the Maru Crew, she would've relayed the information to Andromeda and they would come into the system and destroy the asteroid. "But I sorta knew that we'd have to resort to plan B," adds Gold Trance.

"Which is?" asks Past Beka, Gold Trance smiles and prepares to explain the plan.

-----

Later, the Maru Crew is sitting around in the Past Maru's bar. Beka is clearly upset about the plan, "I could deal with being live bait, but this plan is way too dangerous!"

"C'mon Boss," says Harper, "The Maru's in almost perfect working order and you are the best pilot in the Known Worlds."

"But I'm a cargo runner not a bombardier," moans Beka.

"You're a cargo runner now, but pretty soon that's all going to change," says Trance, "look at your future self."

"But I'm not her, not yet," says Beka.

Rev puts his hand on her shoulder, "but you will be, and you have the capacity to be like her now."

Harper and Trance both agree with Rev, Beka is still worried, "but when the Magog attacked us last time we were overwhelmed, if it wasn't for Rommie and our future selves we would've been eaten, or worse. And if we have to face another swarm without them backing us up, we're doomed."

"But Boss, Andromeda's not totally wrecked and our future selves are still coming along if we get in big trouble," says Harper, Beka sighs and reluctantly accepts the fact that they have no choice but to go ahead with the plan. "I'm still not sure about this plan, but we need to stop those freaks from making another weapon, the prototype was bad enough," says Beka walking towards the cockpit.

"You're telling me!" calls Harper as he heads towards the engine room.

"Which one?" jokes Beka, smiling for the first time since they were told the plan. Trance is also cheerful as she sits down at her station in the cockpit, Rev takes a seat at his station and Beka sits down in the pilot's chair. She hails Andromeda's bridge where her future self is in that pilot's station. Captain Harper is at the captain's station to Future Beka's right, Rommie is in the fire-control station to her left. Gold Trance is in the sensors and ES (Emergency Systems) station on the back-right area of the bridge (as seen from the front of the room).

Past Beka requests permission to leave Andromeda and Captain Harper lets her. The Past Maru and its explosives-filled cargo pod fly out of the bay and move ahead of Andromeda. The future people wish their past selves and Rev good luck as both groups prepare to enter slipstream simultaneously. As Future Beka prepares to enter slipstream she jokingly says, "as Rommie's not-so-beloved ex-boyfriend Fleet Admiral Dylan Hunt would say, 'let's bring it!'" Harper and Rommie groan at their old captain's tacky catchphrase as the Andromeda and the Maru enter slipstream.


	8. Fight and Flight

Chapter 8: Fight and Flight

**Act III**:

Future Beka lets the Past Maru get ahead of Andromeda before they both exit slipstream. That way, the Maru exits near Septentrional's asteroid belt and the Andromeda exits at the edge of the system. Since the two ships exited slipstream at the same time the Magog base wouldn't be able to sense that there wasn't one slipstream event, but two. This way, Andromeda wasn't detected entering the Sept. System, and can wait in the fringes of the planetless star system while the Maru Crew try to destroy the base.

Meanwhile on the Past Maru, the crew is on edge once again. Rev sends out an open hailing frequency into the asteroid belt and they get a reply. Dr. Mastiff's face appears on the screen, he smiles and thanks the Maru Crew for getting his research equipment to the Sept. System so quickly (in about three days). Beka responds, "yup, we got it right here in our cargo pod, as-well as some other cargo we picked up, I hope you don't mind."

Mastiff kindly responds, "oh no, I'm fine with extra cargo, but I am a little curious about a passenger you picked up in Sydney before you left."

Beka is unfazed, "you mean that android? We dropped her off when we stopped for repairs, she was a bit 'out there' if you know what I mean."

Dr. Mastiff nods and gets back to business. He sends them the coordinates and schematics of their asteroid base and explains to them that they will have to fly the Maru into the asteroid in order to drop off the cargo. Beka wonders if that lowers the risk of being damaged by space junk etc. Mastiff's expression hardens slightly, "yeah, space junk," he then terminates the com. link.

"Ya think he bought it?" asks Harper, calling in from the engine room. Beka's not sure if Dr. Mastiff believed their story about Rommie, Beka's not even sure if he knows about the Magog/Nietzschean attack. Rev is more concerned about having to fly inside the asteroid. The schematics Mastiff gave them show the base as a clump of corridors, labs and other rooms, all using artificial gravity. The docking area is a large, depressurized, zero-gravity area beside the base, the only way to get there is by travelling down a large, winding tunnel through the asteroid.

Rev points out that the docking area is spacious enough for the Maru to turn around in, so they wouldn't have to worry about having to back in or out through the tunnel, but Beka is only mildly comforted. The Maru flies around a large asteroid and is faced with the Magog Base Asteroid. It is much larger than Andromeda and very intimidating.

The base tells them to proceed and Beka slowly moves the Maru into the tunnel. It's pitch black inside so Beka turns on the Maru's running lights. They move the beams around the tunnel, there are no shield generators or internal defense lasers but there are many small, foreboding tunnels leading off from the main tunnel. Beka, Rev and Trance all look worried about the small passageways, but no one says a thing.

Eventually they reach the chamber, it is well lit, with floodlights sticking out of the right wall and an airlock at the end of a large retractable passageway sticking out of the ground. Beka spins the Maru on its axes so the lights are above the ship (instead of to the side), now the Maru's orientation was the same as the corridors etc. of the base. The Maru flies over to what is now the left side of the chamber and connects to the airlock. Large robotic docking clamps reach down from the 'ceiling' and grab the cargo pod. At the same time large clamps on the passageway flip over onto the Maru's hull, locking it in place.

Onboard the Maru, the sensors warn the crew about the clamps, but they already felt them attach to the hull. Dr. Mastiff opens a com. channel to the Maru; he grins darkly at the crew and tells them that there's been a change in plans. Mastiff knows that the Maru Crew has been in contact with people from the future, but he thinks they are onboard the Maru (as well as the past crew), planning to take over the base. Mastiff tells the crew that although the Abyss was planning on using them to eliminate the Andromeda before it escapes the Hephaistos black hole, the Abyss will settle for the Magog Weapon only. Mastiff tells them that he will kill them and take the weapon once the threat of the future people is gone.

"That's what your Nietzschean friends tried," says Beka fiddling with some controls.

"That was in open space where your future friends could save you with the Andromeda, even if they are onboard your little ship, there's no way they're getting you out of our asteroid," gloats Mastiff

True," says Beka, as she disconnects the cargo pod, "**we**'re getting ourselves out of your asteroid."

We clip to the outside of the Maru as its PDLs slice through the passageway clamped onto the ship. The engines fire up and the Maru tears the airlock away as it shoots foreword. Once the Maru is no longer under the cargo pod (which is still being held by the ceiling clamps) it flips end over end and faces the tunnel upside-down. The ship then flies through the floating debris from the destroyed passageway and plunges into the black tunnel.

The Maru's running lights flash on as the ship twists and turns through the tunnel as fast as it could fly. Suddenly Magog Swarm Ships start poring out of the smaller tunnels; most appear behind the Maru, but a few ships come out ahead of it. The Maru's PDLs and missiles blast them away and many more Swarm Ships end up crashing into the walls of the tunnel.

We clip to the mouth of the tunnel as the Maru shoots out, followed by a swarm of Magog ships. The Maru speeds away from the asteroid but the Magog ships match its speed.

On the Andromeda the sensors have detected the Maru and the swarm ships exiting the asteroid, They start flying towards the Maru to try and help it fend of the Magog, but it will take them a while to reach it.

Back on the Maru, Rev tells Beka that they are far enough away from the asteroid to not be affected by any radiation from the Magog laboratory if they destroy the base. Beka immediately pushes the remote activator of the bomb in the cargo pod.

We clip to the interior of the asteroid as Dr. Mastiff looks out a window at the cargo pod. The Old Judge from the Calembour Drift is there too and they are happy about getting the weapon to the Magog. Suddenly there is an explosion in the middle of the cargo pod. "No!" screams Mastiff as the entire pod blows up, filling the entire docking area with a fiery explosion. More explosions are heard as alarms go off. Then Dr. Mastiff and the Judge are consumed by another explosion.

Back on the Maru, Rev announces that the sensors are picking up massive explosions in the interior of the asteroid. "Yes!" says Beka, "looks like you were right, we could save the universe."

"Or, at least this small section of it," says Trance. The Andromeda has almost reached the Maru and is busy blasting the attacking Magog Swarm Ships when the Maru's sensors detect more explosions inside the asteroid.

"What the Hell?" says Beka as huge pieces of the asteroid start flying off into space. On Andromeda, the future people are also reading the explosions, but they recognize the energy signatures being emitted.

"Oh crap!" exclaims Captain Harper as almost the entire surface of the asteroid disintegrates, revealing a Magog Satellite Ship. It is twice the size of Andromeda and it looks like a large, round asteroid surrounded by a thick, uneven ring of metal.

The Maru swerves all over the place as Beka tries to avoid the pieces of the Satellite Ship's asteroid disguise. Also, there are huge amounts of Magog Swarm Ships scattered throughout the area behind the Maru, and its fancy maneuvering is allowing them to catch up. The Maru had almost reached Andromeda when in the cockpit, Rev reports that the sensors are detecting a strange energy buildup in the Satellite Ship.

Andromeda is also sensing the energy; she tells the future people that the Magog are preparing to fire a Point Singularity Bomb. Past Beka hails the Andromeda on the com. (they are close enough for real time communication) asking about the energy buildup. Captain Harper hurriedly explains that PSBs are like the singularities in the centers of black holes. Unlike Nova Bombs which blow up what they hit, PSBs suck what they hit into oblivion. Captain Harper tells the Maru to move away from Andromeda, the larger the target is, the easier it is to hit, and the larger the holes are.

Past Beka is still a bit confused but she breaks off her approach of Andromeda. Suddenly the Satellite Ship fires the PSB, on Andromeda's bridge Beka tries to dodge it, but she isn't fast enough. The Maru Crew watch in horror as the PSB blows right through Andromeda, leaving a giant hole through the center of the ship. On the Andromeda's bridge there are more explosions and everyone is thrown onto the ground.

"Not again," moans Rommie as Captain Harper helps her to her feet. Trance helps Beka up and they hail the Maru, telling them that none of them are hurt (except the Andromeda). Unfortunately Andromeda's shields, weapons, engines and slipstream drive are all off line, it's a sitting duck. Also, the bridge is cut off from the docking bays and Future Beka can't get to her Maru to help the past crew.

On the Maru, Past Beka is very unhappy, she doesn't want to have to fend off a swarm of Magog Ships on her own, she doesn't think she can do it. "Excuse me, aren't you forgetting us?" asks Past Harper from engineering.

"He's right," says Trance, "you're not alone, we're here with you."

"Beka Valentine may not be able to fend off a fleet of Magog, but I think the crew of the Eureka Maru can," says Rev.

"And the Satellite Ship?" asks Past Beka, "we would need a Nova Bomb to destroy that."

"Then it's a good thing we have one," says Future Harper, the Past Crew is amazed at how Andromeda is carrying such a dangerous weapon.

"Actually we have eight bombs on-board," says Rommie, "but our fire control's out, we can't launch any of them."

"Can't ya just eject one?" asks Past Harper.

Past Beka realizes what Harper's planning, the Andromeda will eject tone of the Nova Bombs and the Maru Crew will drag it to the Satellite Ship using the bucky cables. Rommie thinks she can set one of the bombs to not detonate until it hits the Satellite Ship (and not while the Maru's dragging it there), but she warns them that they will need very precise timing in order to get away from the Satellite Ship before it explodes. Future Beka reminds Rommie that the crew has her old lucky charm, Trance Gemini with them, Captain Harper adds the fact that the Maru Crew's captain is the best pilot in the Known Worlds, Beka Valentine. "Plus a genius engineer and the greatest Magog since the Anointed," concludes Gold Trance, (the Anointed was the first Wayist).

Past Beka finally swallows her fear and steers the Maru behind Andromeda, lining it up to where the Nova Bomb will be ejected. Rev prepares the bucky cables and Past Harper preps the engines for the imminent fast flying. Andromeda preps the bomb and starts the countdown to ejection (from 10). We see a shot of a cylindrical container sitting in a narrow passageway on Andromeda (the Nova Bomb). The tiny spherical object in the center of the container is beginning to glow when we clip to the bridge of the Maru as Purple Trance waits for the right moment to move.

When Andromeda reaches 3, Purple Trance yells, "now!" and Beka and Harper fire up the engines. We clip to behind the Maru as its engines flare bright blue and the little ship shoots foreword.

On Andromeda's bridge, the screen embodiment finishes the countdown and says, "ejecting Nova Bomb 4." Outside, the brilliant, glowing white bomb shoots out of Andromeda.

In the Maru's cockpit Purple Trance yells, "now!" again and Rev launches two bucky-cables. We clip to an external view of the bomb, as the Maru rockets closer its bucky-cables shoot foreword and grab it. The Maru flies over the bomb and after it passes the core the cables go taut and the glowing white ball is whisked away from Andromeda by the tiny salvage ship.

On the Maru, Past Beka congratulates Rev on his aiming. Purple Trance tells her to smash the Nova Bomb into the main corridor leading from the Magog-filled asteroid to the ring, located at the front of the Satellite Ship. "Then it's a good thing that the Magog are trigger-happy when using PSBs on big old warships," says Beka.

"Oh? And why is that?" asks Rev.

"They're facing in Andromeda's direction and our target is right in front of us," says Beka.

We look down from above the Maru's starboard side as the ship weaves between asteroids, debris and Magog Swarm Ships, dragging the shining bomb behind them. On Andromeda, the future people are watching the Maru fly closer and closer to the Magog Satellite Ship. "Do ya think they can do it?" Future Beka asks Captain Harper.

"Sure," he replies, "we're the ones in the crippled ship this time, no offence Rommie."

"None taken," she says, smiling at her captain.

We clip back to the cockpit, the Maru is nearing the Magog Satellite Ship and Past Beka is running over the final stages of the plan. Beka tells them that they all have a part to play, Rev has to disconnect the bucky-cables and release the bomb once Beka starts flipping the Maru around. At the same time, Harper has to give the engines every last little bit of energy he can so they can ride the explosion out of the Septentrional System. Finally, Trance has to choreograph the whole thing using her precognitive abilities.

We clip to panorama view (long shot) of the Maru as it reaches the Magog Satellite Ship. It flies above the ring, through a rain of laser shots, eventually turning and diving towards the main corridor leading to the asteroid. We clip to the cockpit as Beka tells Trance to tell her when to pull up. Trance nods absentmindedly as she stares at the ground, a look of intense concentration on her face.

We switch to a view of the Maru from the surface of the corridor and see the ship coming almost straight towards us. We clip back to the cockpit, Trance continues to stare at the ground for a moment. Suddenly her head snaps up and she screams, "Beka!" who pulls back on both steering handles as hard as she can. We clip to the corridor view of the Maru; it is heading towards the spot right ahead of us but breaks and flips around at the last second, its engines barely missing the hull of the Satellite Ship.

Back in the cockpit, Purple Trance yells, "Harper!" in the engine room he pulls down on a huge lever and sparks fly out of the engines. We clip back to the outside sot as the Maru's engines blaze white and the ship accelerates away from the corridor.

"Rev!" shouts Trance in the Maru's cockpit, across from her, Rev pushes the bucky-cable-release button. Outside, as the Maru disappears out of the top of the screen the bucky-cables remain in sight, slowly floating upwards (since they are no longer attached to the Maru). The Nova Bomb (which is glowing the same tone of white as the Maru's engines) shoots into sight from behind the salvage ship. The bomb smashes into the corridor and they blow up in an explosion of white energy.

We switch to a view of the Maru as it arches away from the surface of the asteroid. The white explosion is still growing below the Maru (as far as the crew are concerned the explosion is above them the Maru is upside-down in relation to the Satellite Ship) and is being joined by fiery orange and yellow explosions from the rest of the ring and asteroid. Suddenly the series of explosions causes the entire Satellite Ship to detonate in a brilliant flash.

The three-dimensional wave of energy propels the Eureka Maru ahead of it. The little ship is using the cushion of hot plasma being ejected by the engines to surf along the explosion, flying just ahead of total annihilation. Onboard the Maru, Beka is grinning with the exhilaration of what her miraculous little ship is doing. Rev and Trance are staring wondrously out the window as the Maru shoots by debris, asteroids and Magog Swarm Ships, all of which are being engulfed by the wave of energy meters behind the Maru's engines.

Harper calls in from the engine room, "this makes surfing on 20 foot waves of water look like nothing!" he exclaims (Harper loves surfing). Beka smiles and steers the Maru along the wave of energy so they are lined up with Andromeda.

"All right guys," she says, "it's time for our final stunt of the day."

Onboard Andromeda the future people are staring at the Maru as it careens towards them, just ahead of the orange, yellow and white shock wave. "I told you they'd do it!" says Captain Harper, grinning at the others. Future Beka hails her past self, Past Beka appears on the right screen, beaming at the fact that she's surfing on energy. Past Beka tells the future people that the Maru's going to grab them with its bucky-cables and pull them into slipstream before the explosion engulfs them.

The future people warn them of the dangers but they know there's no way to convince Past Beka to leave them to die. Future Beka eventually stops arguing and smiles, "ah whatever, you guys can do it."

"Yeah," says Captain Harper, "and you were worried about dying."

"Easy for you to say," jokes Past Harper over the Maru's intercom., Past Beka chuckles and angles the Maru for the final approach.

"We just wanted to tell you how great you guys have been before we return to our time," says Gold Trance.

Past Beka looks mildly confused so Rommie speaks up, "good luck." She then terminates the com. link before Past Beka can ask them what Gold Trance meant by 'before we return to our time'.

Back on the Maru, Past Beka shrugs and tells Rev to prepare the bucky-cables, Past Harper stands by to divert power from the engines to the slipstream drive. Purple Trance gets ready to give the others the signal. "Ready… and… now!" she yells. Across from her, Rev fires the bucky-cables, in the engine room, Harper flips the switch diverting the power and in the pilot's chair, Beka opens the slip portal.

We cut to the exterior of the Maru as multiple bucky-cables shoot out and latch onto Andromeda's hull. Beside Andromeda the Maru's slip portal opens and the Maru flies into it, with Andromeda close behind. The portal closes just before the energy wave rips through the spot where Andromeda had been seconds ago.


	9. A New Gig

Chapter 9: A New Gig

In the Past Maru's bridge the crew (except Harper who's in the engine room) cheers as Beka pilots the ship through slipstream. They exit slipstream and are shocked when the only thing they bring out with them is the Maru's cargo pod (which had previously been in one of Andromeda's docking bays). "Where's the Andromeda?" shouts Beka, worried that they somehow left it in the Septentrional System. Trance calmly tells the crew that her golden counterpart brought the Andromeda back to the future while they were travelling through slipstream. "At least they remembered to return our real cargo pod," says Beka, flying the Maru around to hook up to the pod (Rev had already released the bucky-cables).

Harper walks up to the cockpit from the engine room and jokes, "but they owe us one for saving them, they could've at least stayed around and help us erase the Maru's records and all."

"Actually Harper, we owe ourselves one for saving us," corrects Trance.

"Huh?" says Harper, looking mildly confused.

Trance takes no notice and continues speaking, "and besides, I can erase everything myself."

"Fine, how can we help?" asks Beka.

Trance tells the crew that they can help her by going back to their stations. So Harper rolls his eyes and goes back to the engine room, Rev stays in his station and Beka once again, sits in the pilot's chair. "Now what?" asks Beka.

"Now this," says Trance, starting to glow gold. Rev's eyes widen in wonder as his face is illuminated by the glow; Beka sees the light and turns around in her seat to see what's happening.

Beka gasps in amazement at Trance and is about to ask her what's happening when a wave of light flashes across the cockpit. Rev' s head drops onto his station and Beka slumps back in her chair, both of them are unconscious (Harper's also unconscious, but we don't see him).

-----

Beka groggily awakes a couple hours later as Trance calls her name. "Trance?" says Beka, Trance nods and asks Beka what the last thing she remembered was. Beka says the last thing she remembered was entering slipstream after they broke out of Calembour Drift. Beka asks Trance what happened, Trance says they went to the Septentrional System, made repairs and were attacked by 'mean people'.

Beka asks why they were in the Sept. System, Trance tells her that she had heard of lots of ships being destroyed in the system, and she knew that debris is good for making repairs with. Beka asks about who attacked them. "Well," explains Trance, "there were these two big ships and their crews both wanted this thing, and we were sorta in the middle of the fight, it was very frightening. Then one of the ships fired a Nova Bomb in order to prevent the other ship from getting the thing."

"What was important enough to do **that** for?" gasps Beka, Trance shrugs and explains that the Maru got out of the system before the explosion destroyed the little ship, but after they exited slipstream the crew went unconscious and she was the only one who didn't loose her memory.

"Lucky you," says Beka, she asks if there any other side-effects of the Nova Bomb-generated radiation other than the memory loss. Trance shakes her head and Beka gets out of the pilot's chair yawning. She calls Rev's name but he continues to sleep. Beka tells Trance to wake him up as she goes looking for Harper. After Beka leaves, Trance smiles to herself, technically Trance didn't lie to Beka about what happened over the past 4 days. She just left out most of the details and let Beka assume that the events that seem most obvious (using the debris for the repairs and loosing their memory because of the radiation).

Beka walks into the engine room and sees Harper sleeping on the floor. She walks over to Harper, crouches down, screams his name and shakes him awake. He wakes with a start and Beka explains that they lost memory due to radiation poisoning, and retells the story Trance told her. "Huh," says Harper, looking around at the repaired engines, "all I know is that I had the strangest dream."

"Yeah, me too," says Beka, "I can't remember what happened, but I do remember having blonde hair." Harper chuckles at the thought of Beka as a blonde, Beka grins and shakes her head, her hair instantly turns from red to blonde.

"Oh yeah," says Harper, "the nano-bots your dad gave you that let you change your hair colour whenever you want."

Beka nods and asks about Harper's dream, he says the only thing he can remember is a hot babe falling from the sky, and him having to save her from some evil guys. "That was definitely a dream!" scoffs Beka. Rev calls the engine room and asks Harper and Beka to come up to the cockpit. The two crewmates tell him they're coming as they stand up and walk out of the room together.

Beka and Harper walk onto the cockpit and Rev looks up from his station. "Beka!" he exclaims, "I see you are trying out a new hair colour."

"Oh, I was just telling Harper about the dream I had. I was blonde in the dream and I wanted to try it out in real life," says Beka. Trance smiles and tells Beka that she looks good as a blonde.

"Yeah, just like me," says Harper grinning. Beka snorts and Rev speaks up about his dream.

"I don't recall what happened in the dream, but it has left me wondering about my current opinions on life verses death," says Rev, "especially when it applies to androids."

"Hmm," says Beka before asking why Rev called Harper and her to the cockpit. Rev happily announces that the corrupted Calembour Drift Judge has disappeared and her replacement has lifted the majority of the charges against the Maru Crew. However they are being charged for breaking out of custody and injuring a few officers on Calembour Drift.

"Not another fine," moans Beka, but she's glad the crew's no longer wanted for murder. Rev optimistically points out they have three months to pay the fine. Beka still wants to find a job ASAP and Trance suggests they go work for the Nightsider named Gerentex. (Nightsiders are rat-faced aliens who love making money). Trance is holding a flexi (a sheet of plastic that displays information, videos etc.) and reading about Gerentex's goal of finding old High Guard ships left over from The Fall. Harper snatches the flexi and reads out part of Gerentex's list of possible scores.

"The Pax Magellanic, the Balance of Judgement, the Andromeda Ascendant! This guy's crazy!" exclaims Harper.

"Yeah, but he's rich," says Beka taking the flexi from Harper, "thousands of Thrones for all of us, even if we don't salvage any ships, more then enough to pay the fine."

"And if we do find a ship, imagine the profits!" says Harper, daydreaming about the possibilities. Beka smiles and turns to Trance, asking her how she got all the inside information on Gerentex.

"I dunno," shrugs Trance, "just lucky I guess."

"I'll say," says Beka, "with you around I bet we'll find plenty of High Guard ships."

"Who knows?" says Trance, smiling as she sits at her station.

"Well, we better get a move on," says Beka walking down to the pilot's chair, "we wouldn't want some mediocre salvage crew taking our gig."

"Yeah, right," scoffs Harper, "even a near-sighted Nightsider could clearly see that the crew of the Eureka Maru far surpasses all of the competition." (Nightsiders have bad eyesight).

Beka chuckles as Harper trots off to the engine room. She sits in the pilot's chair and tells the crew to check the Maru's systems, "ES and Life Support systems are fine," says Trance in the cockpit.

"Sensors and Communication systems are functioning," says Rev across from Trance.

"The power generators, engines and slipstream drive are all A-Okay," says Harper in the engine room.

Back in the cockpit Beka opens a slip portal and says, "Eureka Maru good to go." We then clip to the exterior of the Maru as it disappears into slipstream.


	10. Better than Heaven

**Author's Note: Well, I hope you have all liked my first fanfic, I'm still learning so sorry if any of the formatting was a little off. One question though, I couldn't figure out how to name my first chapter something other than 'Chapter 1', can anyone help, please? Thanks!**

**Anyway, I now present the final chapter of _Treatment – Eureka Maru_, enjoy.**

Chapter 10: Better than Heaven

We switch to a different slip portal as the beaten and battered Andromeda Ascendant exits slipstream back in the future. On the bridge, Beka breathes a sigh of relief that they were able to transmit back to normal space with a busted slipstream drive. Trance smiles and tells her friends that she's going to restore their memories of the mission from when they were the Maru Crew. "So we did stay in our universe," says Harper, "or our past memories wouldn't match up to our recent memories."

Trance nods and once again glows gold, but this time the wave of light doesn't knock the others unconscious. They each glow momentarily and when they open their eyes, they can remember what happened from their past selves' points of view. "Wow!" exclaims Beka, "I've surfed on explosions with Andromeda plenty of times, but it's way more fun on the Maru!"

"Definitely, and since I'm an android now, I can remember exactly what happened at every moment," gloats Harper.

Beka sticks her tongue out at Harper before turning to Trance and asking her if she was coming with them to visit Rev (they promised to tell him what happened after they got back from the mission). Trance says she has to come, that way she can restore Rev's memory. She also adds the fact that the Maru's records have been re-altered and now chronicle what actually happened to the little ship during the mission (instead of the fake records Purple Trance created in the past in order to fool the crew).

Beka smiles and laps into silence. After a moment, Harper asks her what's on her mind. She turns to him and asks, "remember when the Calembour Drift Judge told me that I had a dysfunctional family?"

"Of course," he responds, tapping the piece of metal ticking out of his head.

"She was wrong," says Beka, "I have two dysfunctional families." Beka explains that although her physical family is her brother and parents, she considers her crew as her real family (including Rommie). Beka always felt this way, but watching her past self and the Maru Crew work together to cheat death made her appreciate this fact more.

Harper nods, "family is very important," he says, thinking about his dead parents. Beka asks him if he learned anything about himself from the mission. "Yeah, I can't believe I used to be so irritating," jokes Harper.

Beka grins and says, "used to be?" Rommie smiles and says that Harper is much more mature now then he was 13 years ago.

Thinking she's being sarcastic, Harper says, "you're too kind."

"I'm serious," says Rommie walking over to Harper's station, "you've always been kind to me, no-matter what, and I've always taken you for granted. But when I thought I had lost you, I realized how wrong I was."

"It's okay Rommie," says Harper.

Rommie is still sorry, "do you forgive me?"

"Rommie, this may sound cliché, but there's nothing to forgive," says Harper.

"Sorry to cut in," says Holo-Rommie, appearing in front of Beka's station, "but the Commonwealth Fleet is on approach and Admiral Hunt is hailing us from the Seefran Sunset."

"Great," moans Harper, turning away from Rommie, "put him through." Dylan Hunt's face appears on the center screen, he is middle-aged, has brown hair and is wearing a prestigious High Guard uniform (played by Kevin Sorbo).

"Harper! What did you do to my ship!" he shouts, clearly annoyed.

Harper opens his mouth to defend himself but Rommie cuts him off. "It's Harper's ship," she snaps before closing the com. link.

"What are you doing?" asks Harper, putting a hand on Rommie's shoulder, wheeling her around to face him.

"This," she says, kissing Harper. Beka's mouth drops open in shock, Holo-Rommie purses her lips in disapproval and disappears. Beka turns around and sees Trance smiling, she looks back at Harper and Rommie, her mouth still open.

Rommie pulls back and Harper stares at her, his face a mix of extreme happiness, and extreme surprise. "Okay, now I know I'm dead 'cause I'm in Heaven," says Harper, somewhat dazed.

"Well," says Rommie, "you've died, but this isn't Heaven."

"That's okay," responds Harper, snapping out of his trance, "I like this better." Rommie smiles and hugs Harper, Beka and Trance are still smiling as the couple turns back to the screen arm in arm. "Ok, it's time to face the music," says Harper re-opening the com. link.

-----

Suddenly the screen goes black and white and all the action stops. We see the future people standing on the bridge ready to talk to the screen behind our point of view. Harper and Rommie are in the station on the left side of the screen, Beka is in the middle station and Trance has stepped up into the fire-control station on the right side of the screen.

Then Gold Trance steps in front of the scene, she looks at her happy friends (and herself) and says, "well that worked." The black and white image fades away and is replaced by a glowing blue background. Trance steps over to her bonsai tree, takes out her shears and crouches over the tree. "But I think I can do better," she says snipping off a branch.

The blue background is instantly replaced by a flurry of black and white images from the Eureka Maru movie and the Andromeda TV show. We see a close up of Trance's face as she stands in front of the images looking towards us. She glows golden yellow and changes to her younger purple form.

She glows again and disappears, all we can see is the series of rapid scenes. Some images last long enough so we can recognize what they show but there never any action. We see all the main characters from the Andromeda TV show (Beka, Harper, Dylan, Rev, Rommie, Tyr, Rhade, Doyle and the two versions of Trance), and the ship form of Andromeda. Suddenly the series of images stops with a moving scene of the Eureka Maru.

It is flying towards a point to our right. As it flies by, we turn and watch as the Maru opens a slip portal, disappearing for the final time as we hear the eerie 'Eureka Maru music'.

-----

(The credits are accompanied by the songs _Prime Time_ by _Alan Parsons_, _Slipstream_ by _Jethro Tull_ and _Breathe in the Air_ by _Pink Floyd_.)

The End


End file.
